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J3 a loH(Di;WDlE s M.1,UJ 
AGED .100 YEARS. 



MEMOIR 



EDWARD A. HOLYOKE, M. D. LL. D. 



PREPARED IN COMPLIANCE WITH A VOTE 



ESSEX SOUTH DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY, 
PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST. 



^fi v 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & MARVIN, 
No. 114, Washington Street. 

M.DCCC.XXIX. 






*Y\*. 



V 6 



DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS to wit. 

District Clerk's Office. 

Be it remembered, that on the sixteenth day of July, A. D. 1829, in the fifty 
fourth Year of the Independence of the United States of America, Perkins & Mar- 
vin, of the said District, have deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the right 
whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the Words following, to wit : 

Memoir of Edward A. Hohyoke, M. D. LL. D., prepared in compliance with a 
vole of the Essex South District Medical Society, and published at their request. 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act 
for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, 
to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned :" 
and also to an Act entitled " An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for 
the encouragement of learning-, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to 
the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned ; and 
extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching histori- 
cal and other prints." 

TNO W DAVIS $ Clerk °f ihe District 
J1NU. w. UAVia^ f Massachusetts. 



TO 

THE FAMILY OF THE LATE 
DR. HOLYOKE, 

AS A SLIGHT TESTIMONY OF THE VENERATION 

IN WHICH 

THE MEMORY OF THEIR PARENT 

IS HELD 

BY HIS MEDICAL BRETHREN, 

THE FOLLOWING MEMOIR IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 

BY THE COMMITTEE 



ESSEX SOUTH DISTRICT MEDICAL SOCIETY. 



Salem, June 1, 1829. 




JEo Ao EOLTOIE 
AGED 4 5 . 



MEMOIR 



OP 



DR. HOLYOKE 



To preserve and transmit the memory of the 
good, is to promote the cause of virtue, and the 
practice of good deeds. Impressed with this con- 
sideration, the District Medical Society, of which 
the subject of this Memoir was their first President, 
have deemed it a pious duty, to collect the scattered 
memorials of a member of the profession, lately de- 
ceased, whose least distinction it was that his life 
was protracted far beyond the limits, ordinarily as- 
signed to human existence. 

In preparing the following memoir, the commit- 
tee, to whom the duty has been assigned, have had 
in view other objects than the gratification of curi- 
osity, and mere entertainment. Of the latter, an 
account of the daily duties of an unostentatious 
practitioner of medicine, affords but a scanty sup- 
ply ; and as the subject of the memoir had, of all 



men, the least pretensions to eccentricities and sin- 
gularity, there is little of varied interest in the 
events of his life. But it would be no small matter, 
if the contemplation of Dr. Holyoke's life, should 
convince an aspirant for medical renown, that to be 
eminent it is only necessary to become useful; and 
that a life faithfully devoted to the interests of phi- 
lanthropy, and the study of philosophy and medicine, 
inevitably conducts to high honor and distinction, 
and obtains for its possessor a remembrance in the 
affections of mankind, and in the annals of the good, 
which will be durable and fresh when the reputation 
of misdirected talents shall have faded away. 

The literature of our profession is deficient in the 
annals of those who have most contributed to raise 
its dignity and importance, and it is hoped that the 
following imperfect sketch, will be acceptable, at 
least to those who have been accustomed to feel an 
interest in the life and character of the Nestor of 
our profession. 

Edward Augustus Holyoke was the second of 
eight children of Edward and Margaret Holyoke of 
Marblehead, County of Essex, Mass. His father 
was born in Boston, educated at Harvard College, 
where he was afterwards tutor, settled as pastor of 
the second congregational society in Marblehead, 
April 25, 1716, installed President of Harvard Col- 
lege 1737, and died June 1769, aged 80. His pa- 
ternal ancestor came from Tamworth, on the bor- 
ders of Warwickshire, England, and was among the 



original grantees of the town of Lynn, where he 
settled at Sagamore Hill, in 1638.* President Hol- 
yoke was three times married ; the first time to 
Elizabeth Brown of Marblehead, the second to Mar- 
garet Appleton, daughter of Col. John Appleton of 
Ipswich, and the third time to the widow of Major 
Epes of Ipswich Hamlet. The subject of this 
memoir was the offspring of the second marriage, 
and was born August 1, 1728, old style. In 1742 
he entered the freshman class at Harvard Univer- 
sity. He has preserved an account of his examina- 
tion, and the sentence which was given him as a 

* Dr. Holyoke had at one time in his possession the genealogical records of 
his family ; but just before the revolutionary war, he lent them to Gov. 
Hutchinson, and they shared the fate of those papers which were destroyed 
in the mobbing of Mr. Hutchinson's house in 1765. 

The following memoranda, furnished by a highly intelligent antiquarian 
friend, to whose researches we are indebted for other favors, are taken from 
the ancient records of this and the neighboring town of Lynn. It is to be 
observed the prefix Mr. was only used for the names of persons of some 
distinction. In 1638, the town of Lynn granted to " Mr. Edward Holliocke 
upland and medowe 500 acres." The name of " Mr. Edward Holiock" is 
found among the list of freemen of Massachusetts colony, May 14, 163S. 
(Savage's Winthrop, vol. ii.) 

Thomas Putnam was married to " Ann Holyocke, 17th Sth mo. 1643, who 
was daughter to Mr. Edward Holyock and Prudence his wife, formerly of 
Tanworth in Warwicke sheere, England." (Record of births, deaths, and 
marriages, Salem.) 

Among the depositions taken in the suit of Dexter to recover Nahant from 
the town of Lynn is the following : — " The testimony of Edward Holyoke, 
27th 4th mo. 1657. About the year 1642, or 1643, Mr. Humphrey and Mr. 
Thomas Dexter the elder, did instigate me earnestly to joyne sute with them 
about Nahant, because Mr. Dexter said I had a proprietie in Nahant as well 
as them ; myselfe purchasing what right Captaine Turner had in Saugus alias 
Lyn : but I durst not embrace that offer, because divers of the inhabitants 
gave forth that Nahant belonged as common to the plantation of Lyn, for 
that the contending for Nahant would have been as for Naboth's Vineyard." 
Taken before me, June 27, 1657. Samuel Denison. (County Court records.) 



theme upon that occasion, seems to have been the 
motto of his future life. " Labor improbus omnia 
vincit." From this period to the end of his life, he 
was characterized by constant diligence, and assidu- 
ous attention to his duties. In 1746 he was gradu- 
ated, and in the following year he spent six months 
at Roxbury in teaching a school.* In July 1747, 
he commenced the study of medicine under the care 
of Col. Berry, of Ipswich. t This gentleman was 
the most distinguished practitioner of his neighbor- 
hood, although his being universally known by his 
military title, does not speak highly for the estima- 
tion in which medical honors were then held. He 
finished his studies in April, 1749, and came to 
Salem in June of the same year. This place has 
ever since been the scene of his useful and philan- 
thropic labors. For the remainder of his life he 
scarcely left the town, unless on business connected 
with his profession, and during his life he never 
wandered so far as fifty miles from the spot on which 
he was born. His longest journey was to Ports- 

* For which he received eighty four pounds old tenor — $38,50: out of 
which he paid his board at sixty seven cents per week. 

f " Thomas Berry, Esq. was born at Boston, the latter end of the 17th 
century, and was graduated at Harvard College, 1712. He received his 
medical education under Doct. Thomas Greaves, of Charlestown. He settled 
at Ipswich, Essex County, where he had a remarkable run of practice in his 
profession, and was considered the most eminent physician in that vicinity. 
But in the latter period of his life he was more attentive to politicks than 
physick. He represented the town in the legislature, and afterwards was of 
the council several years, was judge of probate for the county of Essex, and 
justice of the court of Common Pleas, and colonel of the regiment. He 
died August 10th, 1756, aged 72." (From a memorandum of Dr. Holyoke's.) 



mouth, in 1749, at which time he was absent five 
days. In 1755 he was married to Judith Pickman, 
daughter of Col. B. Pickman of Salem. This lady 
died in her nineteenth year, in 1756, soon after the 
birth of a daughter, which did not long survive her. 
In 1759 he was again married to Mary Viall, daugh- 
ter of Nathaniel Viall, merchant of Boston. Upon 
this latter occasion, he was absent from Salem a 
week, which is believed to have been the longest 
visit he ever made from home, except in 1764, when 
he went to Boston to be inoculated for the small 
pox. The length of this visit was occasioned by a 
custom which then prevailed, for newly married 
persons to devote a week to receiving the visits and 
congratulations of their friends, or as the phrase was, 
" sitting up for company ;" a ceremony which Dr. 
Holyoke declared to one of the Committee was 
" very tedious and irksome." By his second wife he 
had twelve children, most of whom died in infancy. 
Two daughters only survive ; the widow of the late 
Mr. William Turner, of Boston, and the wife of 
Joshua Ward, Esq. of this town. Dr. Holyoke 
perhaps was led to select this town as his place of 
residence, in consequence of the death of Dr. Cabot, 
which occurred just at the time of his finishing his 
studies ; but so little were his expectations of em- 
ployment realized, that after two years' trial, he 
appears to have had serious intentions of abandoning 
the place, in despair of success, and to have remained 
here only through fear of distressing his father if he 
returned home. 



10 

No man probably ever entered upon the business 
of his profession with more settled resolution and 
perseverance than Dr. Holyoke. He had youth and 
health, a constitution of mind and body eminently 
calculated for endurance of labor and fatigue, was 
reputed a good scholar for his time; he read the 
Latin language with great fluency, and he subse- 
quently attained a familiar acquaintance with the 
French ; he had as many opportunities of learning 
his profession as were common at that time, and was 
respectably connected, and advantageously known. 
But notwithstanding these advantages, the medical 
profession abounded in discouragements which, to 
say the least, are greatly lessened in our day. The 
standard of medical education was totally unsettled. 
Every one who chose to prescribe for the sick, was 
admitted to the rank of physician ; the higher points 
of medical character, and the value of medical 
studies, were totally unappreciated by the bulk of 
the people ; and the compensation for medical ser- 
vices was exceedingly small.* The periodical press 
did not then, as now, issue its regular current of 
observations and intelligence, and it was not till Dr. 
Holyoke reached the declining period of life, that 
this species of medical literature had given that 
impulse to the profession, which is so sensibly felt 
at the present day. It was rare, in the period of 
his meridian life, for any man to devote himself to 



* His first visits were charged at 5s. old tenor, equal to 8 pence, or about 
11 cents each. This was at a time when provisions bore nearly half of their 
present prices, and other necessaries of living were in proportion. 



11 

medicine as a science, and pursue the profession 
without reference to other advantages than those 
which appertain to medical and scientific character. 
During almost the whole period of Dr. Holyoke's 
life, the spirit of commercial adventure was the 
characteristic trait of almost all around him. There 
were many ways of rapidly attaining to wealth and 
distinction, which looked more inviting than the one 
he had chosen ; and it shows his steadiness of pur- 
pose, and his characteristic contempt for mere money, 
that during his whole life he never appears to have 
been enticed to engage in any of the enterprises, 
which were undertaken by others in pursuit of 
wealth, or for a single day to have laid aside his 
character of a practitioner of the healing art. The 
following sketch is from the pen of his intimate 
friend and one of his eldest pupils now living. 

" He possessed much vivacity of disposition, ac- 
companied with great agility of body, and when at 
college was remarkable for his feats of activity. He 
was reputed to have been a very good scholar. 

" The peculiar constitution of his mind led him to 
cultivate and to be much attached to experimental 
inquiry. He thought with Bacon, that it was the 
only road to discovery. He often expressed great 
aversion to hypotheses, whether applied to medicine 
or natural philosophy. 

" He made some original experiments, more than 
half a century ago, with ether and the thermometer, 



12 

by which he discovered the power of evaporation to 
produce cold. And this was done before the dis- 
covery had been announced in America.* 

" He was very attentive to his professional duties, 
visiting with equal promptness the poor and the rich. 
Few physicians in the United States have done so 
much for the poor. When in the sick chamber his 
manners were remarkably affable and kind, but pre- 
serving a proper dignity of deportment. Such was 
the success attending his practice, and his great 
reputation, that it produced to him such a pressure 
of business, as sometimes scarcely permitted him to 
take the necessary meals for supporting life.f 

" In medical consultations he expressed himself 
with diffidence and caution, and with junior mem- 
bers of the profession, was free from hauteur, and 
was communicative, and at the same time candid, 
and disposed rather to conceal than to expose their 
errors. 

" His practice has been thought, in the use of, 
mercury and opium, to have resembled that of the 
celebrated Dr. Darwin. For although he very often 
prescribed those active agents, yet it was, perhaps, 
in more cautious doses than they are generally ad- 

* See Appendix A. 

t The following calculation conveys some idea of the extent of his business. 
He had filled 120 day-books of 90 pages each, containing charges for 30 visits 
on each page — giving an average of over 11 visits a day for 75 years. And 
upon one occasion, when the measles were epidemic in 1787, he made over 
100 professional visits in a day, for several days. And there was a period of 
his practice when he could say there was not a house in Salem in which he 
had not visited professionally. 



13 

ministered in the present day. In pneumonic inflam- 
mation, however, and in cases of cynanche trachealis, 
the mercury was very liberally prescribed. In the 
latter disease he depended principally on the turpeth 
mineral. 

" He was not averse as he advanced in life to the 
trial of new remedies, but might rather be said to be 
fond of such trial ; but it was always done with 
great caution, to ensure safety to his patients. He 
early gave the mineral solution, and he was one of 
the first physicians in America that prescribed the 
Prussic acid.* 

" Cheerfulness has been said to be conducive to 
longevity, and such an influence it probably had in 
the subject of this memoir, in whom this quality of 
the mind abounded, and formed a most conspicuous 
trait in his character. But although he loved cheer- 
fulness, his conversation did not admit of levity. 
The subjects which he liked most to dwell upon, in 
the society of his friends, were such as had a 
useful bearing on morals, the arts or sciences, for 
the advancement of the happiness of the great 
family of mankind. A learned Professor said he 

* One of the first cases in which he prescribed this medicine was that of 
his own daughter when in a hectical state. She was much benefitted by it, 
and shortly after regained her health. To one other patient affected with 
incipient Phthisis pulmonalis he prescribed the same remedy, and it was 
followed by such an alleviation of the symptoms that the patient was prompted 
to continue it for nine months, when she obtained a cure. So serious in this 
case was the malady, that Dr. Holyoke had mentioned to a friend that he 
expected to lose his patient. His trial of the Hydrocyanic acid was not 
limited to these two patients only, he had frequently prescribed it in other 
cases. 

B 



14 

always learned something new from the Doctor's 
conversation. 

" He was always a strong advocate for the truth 
of the Christian religion, and of the doctrine of im- 
mortality. And he adorned the religion he professed, 
by his benevolent deeds, and most exemplary life. 

" The Doctor often regretted the want of greater 
advantages in his earlier medical education, and 
evinced by his diligence in reading the best medical 
authors, a desire to compensate as far as possible 
such deficiency. He possessed great industry, for 
if he returned home but for a few minutes, he would 
snatch up a book, and resume his studies. He was 
in the habit of importing, almost every year from 
England, for some considerable portion of his life, 
the new medical books of merit. But his reading 
was not confined to medicine exclusively. He was 
well versed in Astronomy, and the several branches 
of Natural Philosophy and Theology, and the Belles 
Lettres. He was truly a man of science, and the 
public manifested that they considered him so to be, 
by his having been appointed the first president of 
the Massachusetts Medical Society, and once also 
president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

" To his extensive science he united great urban- 
ity of manners. The correctness of his conduct, 
prudence, and politeness were very remarkable. 
He was fond of society, which he enlivened by his 
wit, while he instructed his associates by a commu- 
nication from the rich stores of his mind. For he 



15 

was what Bacon has styled a full man ; and what 
was said of Dr. Mead may be applied to him. 
1 Whose abilities and eminence in his profession, 
united with his learning and fine taste for those arts 
which embellish human life, long rendered him an 
ornament, not only to his own profession, but to the 
nation and age in which he lived.' " 

The characteristics of mind most essential to form 
the practical physician are a talent for observation, 
a readiness to take cognizance of the phenomena of 
nature, and curiosity to investigate the causes of 
these phenomena. These characteristics distin- 
guished Dr. Holyoke from his outset in life.* He 
had a good memory, and although his incessant calls 
prevented his devoting much time to writing, he 
seldom passed a day, for the first sixty years of his 
practice, without noting down some fact or observa- 
tion, calculated to augment his professional know- 
ledge. His meteorological observations were re- 
corded daily, almost without an interruption, for 
eighty years. 

The study of the book of nature has been the oc- 
cupation of the enlightened physician in all ages, 
and a more complete method of pursuing this study 
can hardly be imagined than that of Dr. Holyoke. 
If his attendance upon professional practice had ever 
allowed him to have fully completed this plan, and 
prepared the general results of all his observations 

* See Appendix B. 



16 

for publication, he would have furnished a most val- 
uable treasury of medical knowledge. He kept a 
memorandum upon his table in which was minuted 
down the name of every disease the moment he re- 
turned from making his call, the more remarkable 
being the subject of further memoranda, as their in- 
terest required, or his leisure allowed. At some 
stated periods, as at the end of the year, he made 
out a summary from these daily memoranda, in which 
he ascertained by computation the number of cases 
of every disease. He also was diligent in obtaining 
correct bills of mortality. He was thus enabled to 
inform himself most completely of the changes which 
take place in the frequency of occurrence, and the 
fatality of diseases. These observations, together 
with those of a meteorological character, formed a 
complete history of the physical changes which came 
under his notice. The manuscripts here alluded to, 
with the exception of those which were sent to the 
Massachusetts Medical Society, were never intended 
for public inspection, and are not left in a state to 
furnish a connected history of the diseases of this 
vicinity. But such a history might have been com- 
piled from them by the author himself, which would 
have resembled in character and value the celebra- 
ted Commentaries of the venerable Heberden. 

Astronomy was the favorite study of scientific 
men of the last century, and Dr. Holyoke devoted a 
portion of his time to this study. The appearance 
of comets, and remarkable displays of the Aurora 



17 

Borealis, are noted in his diary with much exact- 
ness.* In 1769f he made accurate observations of 
the transit of Venus over the sun's disk, and in 
17821 the transit of Mercury over the sun's disk. 
The observation and recording of the changes of the 
weather, earthquakes, storms, and other memora- 
bilia, continued to be a favorite pursuit with him as 
long as he lived. The well remembered Septem- 
ber gale of 1815,^ is noticed and recorded by him, 
with much fidelity and exactness. The epidemics 
which occurred in his practice were never suffered 
to pass without at least a cursory record of the prin- 
cipal facts connected with them. 

Although for reasons which have been mentioned, 
he did not often appear before the public as an 
author, he was not indifferent to the cultivation of 
medical science among its professors. As soon as 
the Medical Society of this State was formed, || he 
contributed his full share to their published transac- 
tions. He wrote the preface to the first volume, 
and the first paper of that volume is his interesting 
account of the state of the weather, diseases, opera- 
tion of remedies, deaths, &c. in Salem, for every 

N * His letter to Professor Silliman, dated Sept. 19, 1S27, in the American 
Journal of Science, vol. 14th, contains an account of the beautiful appear- 
ance of the heavens in the evening of August 28th, 1S27, and of some prior 
exhibitions of the Aurora Borealis which he had witnessed. 

t June 3. X November 12. § See Appendix C. 

|| Doctor Holyoke was one of the founders of the Society, and was most 
punctual in his attendance at the stated meetings of the Society at large, as 
well as those of the District Society in which he was included. To this latter 
body he was a generous benefactor during his life, and bequeathed to their 
library some of his most valuable books. 



18 

month of the year 1786, and shows that he must 
have been in habits of close observation, and of 
noting down the occurrences he met with in prac- 
tice. Observations of the same kind were commu- 
nicated for the years 1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1787 
and 1788. Every physician engaged in full prac- 
tice, as was Dr. Holyoke at this time, will admit 
this to have been no small labor. 

In the above mentioned paper the following re- 
marks show what were his ideas, upon the duty of 
a practitioner in recording his experience, and what 
rich stores of knowledge, might have been furnished, 
to benefit the profession and mankind, if other dis- 
tinguished physicians, who were cotemporary with 
Dr. Holyoke, had pursued the plan recommended 
and practised by him. " It were much to be wished 
that practitioners would more generally than they 
do, commit to paper their thoughts and remarks 
upon diseases as they arise, and communicate them 
to the Society ; which, though doubtless it would 
be attended with some labor, yet this labor would 
be amply rewarded by the benefit which would ac- 
crue to themselves, their patients, and the art they 
profess. The observations of many, made at the 
same time, and in different parts of the country, and 
continued for a course of years, must, when collect- 
ed and compared together, throw a great deal of 
light upon many points, which are now involved in 
much obscurity, and would doubtless be the readiest 
and most effectual method of furnishing materials 



19 

for a history of those diseases which are either epi- 
demical or endemical in our country. Indeed the 
joint efforts of many engaged in the same design, 
may accomplish, in a few years, what would be im- 
practicable to a few individuals, though employed 
for ages." 

By this method of increasing knowledge, and by 
more extensive reading than was common at that 
day, he was, in the early part of his career, in ad- 
vance of most of his professional cotemporaries. 
He acquired the authority of a master ; and without 
being the leader of a sect, his opinions were adopted, 
his prescriptions copied, and his practice imitated. 
His treatment of dysentery may be taken as a spe- 
cimen of his early practice ;* a practice which he 
found successful, and which is still held in high re- 
pute by many practitioners of this neighborhood. 

The terrible epidemic sore throat of 1734-5, 
which almost totally destroyed the infant population 
of the north part of Essex County, was keenly re- 
membered for many years afterward, and the atten- 
tion of physicians was directed to the inflammatory 
affections of the throat and lungs, and the operation 
of remedies the most efficacious in these dreaded 
and dangerous attacks. Hence originated a more 
complete acquaintance with the mercurial practice, 
than elsewhere obtained. An interesting letter of 
Dr. Holyoke's upon this subject was published in 
the first volume of the New York Medical Reposi- 

* See Appendix D. 



20 

tory. As this volume of the work is now scarce, we 
have subjoined the paper in the Appendix.* 

Although, as has been observed, Dr. Holyoke was 
a cautious practitioner, he was not a timid one, and 
never neglected to make himself acquainted with 
the reputed powers of new articles, which were from 
time to time introduced into the materia medica, 
and with the new modes of practice which were 
recommended by others. In the use of the Digitalis, 
of the gum Acaroides, of the muriate of Barytes, and 
of many medicines of later date, he was one of the 
earliest and most careful experimenters. His use 
of acetate of Lead in restraining hemorrhages,! of 
the oxymuriate of Mercury in the treatment of 
scrofula, and some forms of cutaneous disease, of 
small doses of calomel in the ulcuscula oris of chil- 
dren, have led to the establishment of modes of 
treatment, attended with the highest degree of 
benefit. There are several medicines which owe 
their introduction into use entirely to him, and may 
in fact be said to have originated with him, as he 
was the first to settle their best mode of preparation 
and administration. The article so well known in 
this place by the name of the " white balsam drops" 
or " fennel balsam," is a strong solution of sub- 
carbonate of potass with the addition of a little of 
the essential oil of sweet fennel, and is a valuable 
diaphoretic and carminative, especially to children. 
This was a favorite medicine during his whole prac- 

* See Appendix E. f See Appendix F. 



21 

tice. He obtained his first knowledge of it from a 
Mr. Wigglesworth of Maiden.* Of a cheap method 
of preparing the Sal iEratus or super carbonate of 
Potass he wrote an account for the Massachusetts 
Medical Society, which we have reprinted in the 
Appendix.f This article has in this neighborhood 
nearly superseded the common Carbonate, both in 
medicinal and culinary preparations. 

Dr. Holyoke's prescriptions were, for the most 
part, put up under his own inspection, either by 
himself or his pupils. This practice was nearly 
universal, even in the large towns, till the com- 
mencement of the present century, and if there 
were obvious disadvantages in the necessity which 
called for so much of the valuable time of the phy- 
sician, there were undoubtedly some benefits derived 
from connecting practical pharmacy with his more 
dignified duties. The practice still prevails among 
many of our brethren in New York and farther 
south, and is warmly advocated by a distinguished 
individual of their number, t 

Dr. Holyoke was intimately acquainted with the 
qualities and preparations of all the drugs he was in 
the habit of using, and was extremely neat and skil- 
ful in compounding them. Although, perhaps, he 
used a greater number of remedial agents than enter 
into the prescriptions of the present day, he was by 
no means infected with the polypharmacy which was 

* See Appendix G. f See Appendix H. 

X See Dr. Hossack's introductory lecture, 1825, page 19. 
c 



22 

the prevailing fault of the physicians of his time. 
The following anecdote, related by one of his pupils, 
exhibits the simplicity of his practice. " When I 
first went to live with him, in 1797, showing me his 
shop he said ' there seems to you to be a great va- 
riety of medicines here, and that it will take long to 
get acquainted with them, but most of them are un- 
important. There are four which are equal to all 
the rest, viz. Mercury, Antimony, Bark and Opium ; 
of these there are many preparations, however. Of 
Antimony I think I have used thirty. 5 These are 
his words substantially. He ought to have added 
Cantharides, but he was thinking of internal reme- 
dies." The same person adds, " I can only say of 
his practice, the longer I have lived, I have thought 
better and better of it." 

In 1777, Dr. Holyoke applied himself to the busi- 
ness of innoculatmg for Small Pox. He had him- 
self been innoculated in April 1764, by Dr. N. Per- 
kins at Boston, and his careful minutes of this oc- 
currence,* illustrate the customs and practice of that 
day. In March 1777, he took charge of the hospi- 
tal, which had been erected a few years before for 

* This business was in those days considered a very weighty affair. Dr. 
Holyoke first wrote to Dr. Perkins at Boston, where in consequence of the 
Small Pox having been for some time spreading, the selectmen had given 
leave for a general innoculation, to engage his attendance and receive his di- 
rections for the proper preparation of the system. By Dr. Perkins's direc- 
tion, he took a pill at night of five or six grains of Calomel with Antimony, 
and lived low. After some days of this process he was reduced sufficiently 
to receive the disease in the most favorable manner, and accordingly, having 
executed his will, he went to Boston April 6th, and first went abroad after 
the Small Pox April 23d, having had the disease in the most favorable man- 
ner. 



23 

Small Pox* innoculation, and conducted through the 
disease, three classes, amounting in all to about 600, 
with only two fatal cases occurring. But the loss 
of these two, less than the average number, one of 
which occurred in his first class of 200, affected his 
sensitive mind with so much anguish, as almost to 
occasion self reproach, and a resolution to abandon 
the undertaking. During most of the period of his 
patients remaining in the hospital, he passed his 
whole time with them, night and day, and many 
persons in this place, who were at that time under 
his care for innoculation, testify to his assiduous and 
skilful attentions. 

The Small Pox, that loathsome pestilence, has 
long since disappeared with us, and the practice of 
innoculation has been superseded by a still milder 
preventive, so that we hardly stand in need of the 
lessons of experience, to teach us how to manage 
the innoculated Small Pox. But perhaps a more 
judicious set of rules and prescriptions, can no 
where be found for this purpose, than those formed 
and practised upon by Dr. Holyoke, in the Salem 
hospital. His hospital records contain an account 
of almost every patient, and a well arranged and con- 
cise exposition of the general method of treatment. 

Dr. Holyoke was an early vaccinator. He was 
in the common practice of it in the beginning of 
1802, if not sooner.f 

* See Appendix I. 

t The vaccine was received in this neighborhood directly from London, 
and a highly respectable physician now living in a neighboring town, was 



24 

As a surgical operator Dr. Holyoke had more than 
a mediocrity of talent and skill. He never appeared 
to have any extraordinary preference for this branch 
of his profession, but as a matter of necessity held 
himself qualified for all the usual demands for surgi- 
cal treatment. In fact the opportunities for a dis- 
play of surgical address are much less frequent in 
the population with which Dr. Holyoke has resided, 
than might be expected from its number. One of 
the Committee has heard him say there was a period 
of twenty five years, during which he saw nearly all 
the important cases of disease and accident, in the 
town of Salem, and yet never performed or wit- 
nessed an amputation of a large limb. This exemp- 
tion from operations is to be ascribed partly to the 
character, the habits and occupations of the people. 
Agriculture and the fisheries were the principal pur- 
suits, and the building of ships and houses the only 
mechanical employments in which there were likely 
to arise many occasions for surgical assistance. It 
must be allowed too, that the period in which Dr. 
Holyoke held the lead of practice in this vicinity, 
was characterized by a greater degree of temperance 
among laboring people, than existed in most large 
towns. Even at present, while it is acknowledged 
that the vice of intemperance has been, of late 
years, a growing evil, it is believed there are few 

among the first, if not the very first person in America, who fairly put in 
practice the new method. This gentleman, who received the virus from his 
brother in London, commenced vaccinating in the spring of 1800, and with a 
praiseworthy liberality furnished the virus to all his professional brethren who 
applied for it. 



25 

seaports in which there is a less number of sots, in 
proportion to the whole population. The extreme 
rareness of the operation of Lithotomy is quite no- 
ticeable in this vicinity. The perfect purity of the 
water drank by the inhabitants of this town, is no 
doubt one cause of the infrequency of the disease 
requiring this operation. But for many years past, 
and previous to laying the logs of our aqueduct,* 
which brings us water that does not require distilla- 
tion, to render it sufficiently pure for pharmaceutical 
purposes, the occurrence of a case of stone in the 
bladder, would have been considered a remarkable 
phenomenon in the practice of any physician. Not- 
withstanding, however, the infrequency of cases re- 
quring surgical operations, such was the extent of 
Dr. Holyoke's practice, that he was occasionally 
called upon to perform amputations, and other im- 
portant operations ; and in these cases his prompti- 
tude and success were such as procured him a high 
degree of reputation. So late as December 1821, 
when he was ninety two years old, he performed the 
operation of paracentesis. In the management of 
fractures he particularly excelled. No man handled 
a broken limb with more tenderness and adroitness. 
As an obstetric practitioner he was greatly 
esteemed, and upon this branch of his business he 
seems to have bestowed extraordinary attention. 
On his first coming to this place, this department of 
the healing art, was entirely in the hands of igno- 

* The aqueduct was first used in the summer of 1805. 



26 

rant midwives, and the physician was only called, in 
extraordinary cases, or to rectify some of the blun- 
ders of these practitioners. He has preserved an 
account of the first forty five obstetric cases which 
occurred to him. The first one which he " was 
persuaded to engage in" occurred 1755, after he had 
been six years in practice, and it was not till four 
years afterwards that he makes the record of a case 
which was the first " common easy birth which ever 
came under his management." Thus it happened 
that he was early taught to meet the difficulties of 
this branch of medical practice, and he acquired a 
fertility of expedients, and dependence on the re- 
sources of art, which no doubt, contributed to the 
safety of many a female in the hour of peril, after 
he became extensively engaged in attending to these 
cases. * 

He received pupils during nearly all the period of 
his active practice ; and some of the most distin- 
guished physicians of New England were educated 
under his care.f Of his pupils there are thirteen 
now living. 

The period of the revolution was a trying one to 
the subject of this memoir, and he never loved to 
dwell upon the recollection of it. His feelings in 
the spring and summer of 1775, were intensely pain- 
ful. In referring to that period, he said to one of 
his family, he thought he should have died, with the 
sense of weight and oppression at his heart. He 

* See Appendix K. ] See Appendix L. 



27 

had sent his family to Nantucket, and the loneliness 
of his home, increased the feeling of desolation. 
Most of his intimate friends and near connexions 
favored the royal cause, and his own education had 
attached him to the established order of things, and 
his peaceful temper shrunk from the turmoil of a 
revolution. He thought this country destined to be 
independent, but believed the proper period had not 
arrived, and that weakness and dissension were 
likely to follow what he considered a premature dis- 
union. But in after times when referring to these 
opinions, he was wont, with his usual ingenuous- 
ness, to say that the event had proved he was wrong 
in his prediction. He imputed to the revolution a 
change in the manners of the people, which will not 
be reckoned among its good effects. He thought 
there was a falling off in domestic discipline, and a 
relaxation of wholesome subordination among chil- 
dren, since the freedom of the colonies. 

During this trying period he kept steadily occu- 
pied in his benevolent duties,* and such was his 
prudence, his inoffensive manners, and the universal 
respect for his virtues, that he did not meet with so 
much trouble as might have been expected from the 
unpopularity of his opinions. Although most dis- 
tinguished men, who had adopted the royal cause, 
found it expedient to leave the country, it does not 
appear that he was ever impeded in the prosecution 
of his business or studies for a single day. Once 

* See Appendix M. 



28 

only he committed himself, by signing an address, in 
common with a number of the most distinguished 
citizens of the town, complimentary to Gov. Hutch- 
inson, who was about leaving the country. He 
afterwards felt himself obliged, as well as most of 
his associates, to publish a sort of apology for this 
act, which recantation, as it was called, contained 
nothing that was servile or disgraceful.* It does 
not appear that his practice was ever injured by the 
part he took in politics. He held a commission as 
a magistrate both before and after the revolution. 

Dr. Holyoke was as little of a partizan in religion 
as in politics. He was firm and decided in his own 
opinions, but seems neither to have expected nor 
desired uniformity in christian belief. But although 
without any extravagant zeal, he was, emphatically, 
a religious man. A strong sense of moral accounta- 
bility, an earnest desire to conform his actions to the 
will of God, and the cultivation of an ardent feeling 
of gratitude for divine mercy and protection, were 
manifested by his actions and conversation. These 
sentiments are often alluded to, in a feeling manner, 
in the memoranda he made of passing events, and 
especially of those accidents and occurrences which 
at different times had endangered his own life. He 
was a diligent student of the scriptures, and contin- 
ued to read the New Testament in the original until 
the last year of his life. For many years he usually 
reperused this volume with great care, once every 

* See Appendix N. 



29 

year. He was as constant in his attendance at 
church, as his numerous engagements would permit, 
and in the most busy period of his practice, would 
so arrange his business as most commonly to find 
time for public worship on some part of every Sun- 
day. In deeds of piety and benevolence he was 
always active, and through life, had a systematic 
charity proportioned to his means. His gifts were 
bestowed with the most scrupulous secrecy, and 
from his intimacy in the families of all classes, sel- 
dom misapplied. The widowed mother and the 
orphan children, were often relieved by a present of 
money through the post office, which a grateful cu- 
riosity has traced to Dr. Holyokc. 

The loss of his hearing was the greatest privation 
in respect to health which Dr. Holyoke suffered. 
This for many years impaired his enjoyment of the 
pleasures of society, for which he had so high a 
relish. When he was forty five years old, his eye- 
sight required the aid of convex glasses. These he 
used for about forty years, when his eyesight gradu- 
ally returned, and at the time of his death it was so 
perfect, as to enable him to read the finest print, 
without the aid of glasses. In early life he could 
see with much distinctness to a great distance, but 
after he left off his glasses he lost this power, and 
for the last few years, he has complained that ob- 
jects at a distance were multiplied, so that he could 
see four or five moons, &c. An alteration in the 
refracting power of the chrystalline lens, not uncom- 



30 

mon in old age, and which occasions the image to 
be imperfectly formed upon the retina, might be con- 
sidered the sole cause of this imperfection of sight, 
or it was perhaps connected with the state of the 
brain he so accurately describes in the account of 
his own case. 

After he had passed his seventieth year, although 
at this time in full practice, he often expressed a 
fear that he was too old for his employment, and 
that his powers of mind had failed him. In partic- 
ular for the last thirty years of his life, he was wont 
to lament his loss of memory, and say that he only 
read for amusement, and that his mind retained 
nothing. This, though true to a certain extent, his 
characteristic humility greatly exaggerated. He 
did retain the more important ideas which were 
traced in his mind, and kept up with the improve- 
ments in the practice of our art, to a degree most 
unusual for a man who had reached threescore years 
and ten. Since he attained his hundredth year, he 
passed an hour in the study of one of his medical 
acquaintances, and was greatly interested in inquir- 
ing what had been the last accounts of the opera- 
tions for removal of urinary calculus by the new 
operation of lithontripty. Only one week previous 
to his last confinement, in February last, he dictated 
a letter to a gentleman in Connecticut, who had 
written to him requesting his opinion in a case of 
schirrus, in which letter Dr. Holyoke recommends 
the trial of Iodine, and gives full directions for its 



31 

administration. Perhaps these incidents of his last 
days, exhibit in a sufficiently clear manner, what 
was the most distinguishing intellectual trait of his 
whole character. It was that he was always ready 
to receive information, — that he kept his mind open, 
so to speak, and never allowed prejudice, or the 
conceit of great acquirements, to prevent his exam- 
ining and adopting any thing which claimed to be a 
novelty or improvement. 

The circumstance of his arriving to be an hundred 
years old, an occurrence so unusual to happen to any 
man, and of which it does not come within the 
knowledge of the Committee that there are many 
authentic accounts of its having happened before to 
eminent physicians,* was looked upon by the Doctor 

* Some eminent physicians have attained great age, and several of them have 
their ages recorded at one hundred and upwards ; but in almost all these cases, 
the contradictory accounts of authors, give us reason to doubt (he correct- 
ness of the statements. Hippocrates is said by some authors to have died at 
104, by others at 99. In Van der Linden de scriptis medicis, are the follow- 
ing instances. " Abhomeron Abenzoar, Arabs medicus et scriptor. Floruit 
circa annum Christi 1130 vcl 1160. Vitam ad 135 annos produxi>se fertw." 
" Abubeter Rhazes, Mahomethus. Poenus, vixit annos 120. Floruit circa 
A. C. 1070, secundem alios 10S5." — These doubts shake our confidence in 
the correctness of the record. 

In Belknap's History of New Hampshire, among the remarkable instances 
of longevity we find " In Durham, John Buss, a preacher of the gospel for 33 
years, but not ordained ; also a practitioner of physic, died 1736, at the age 
of 108. He was remarkably active and vigorous at a very advanced age." 
Vol. iii. p. 252. A death was announced in the newspapers of Oct. 1S03, 
" at Ward, Mass. Hezekiah Meriam, physician, aged 100. He lived with his 
wife 78 years and she survived him." 

In the topographical description of Honiton in Devonshire, (Gent. Mag. 
vol. lxiii. pt. 1, page 114,) mention is made of the tomb of "Thomas Mar- 
wood, gent. Physician to Queen Elizabeth, who died in the Catholic faith, 
18th September, 1617, aged above 105." 

The following authentic anecdote satisfies us that we must admit this gen- 



32 

and his friends as an era of very great interest. 
Upon this occasion his medical friends of Salem and 

tleman's claims to eminence. " During that part of the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, when the Earl of Essex was most in favor, his lordship had a dis- 
ease in his foot, which baffled the skill of the first medical men in the metro- 
polis, and his existence was despaired of. Dr. Marwood of Honiton, a phy- 
sician of the first eminence in the West of England, whose fame had reached 
the Queen's ear, was sent for, and was fortunate enough to perform the cure ; 
when her Majesty desired the Doctor might be introduced ; which being 
done accordingly, she asked him what favor she should' grant him, to satisfy 
him for the great cure he had accomplished. And the Doctor being already 
possessed of an ample independence, which he had inherited from his ances- 
tors and acquired by his profession, said, « If her Majesty would grant him a 
favor, (mentioning one of a very trivial nature,) he should consider himself 
amply rewarded.' But the Queen, struck with his choice, declared he should 
accept of an estate near Honiton as a reward ; which property forms at present 
part of the immense landed property of James Thomas Benedictus Marwood, 
esquire, of Avishays in the county of Somerset, and Sutton in the county of 
Devon, his lineal descendant." Op. Cit. 1809. 

Surpassing these is an instance of medical longevity mentioned in the 
Gentlemen's Magazine for May 1781, concerning the subject of which 
nothing remarkable is recorded except his great age and his bequeathing 
five pounds a year to the poor of his parish. The inscription upon his tomb 
stone in Ware, County of Herts, England, renewed by the trustees of his 
benefactions to the parish, is as follows : " William Mead, M. D. who died 
Oct. 28, 1652, aged 148 years and 9 months." He was but four years 
younger than the celebrated old Parr, but more than twenty years younger 
than the well known prodigy of longevity, Henry Jenkins, the fisherman, 
who died at 169. 

But even the last mentioned must give up his claims to seniority if the fol- 
lowing instances rest on good authority, and there seems no reason to dispute 
the Welsh record from which they are taken. " Ivan Yorath buried a Sater- 
age the xvii day of July anno Doni 1621, et anno regni regis vicessimo primo, 
annoq : aetatis circa 180. He was a souldier in the fight of Boswoorthe, and • 
lived at Lantwitt Major, and he lived much by fishing." " Elizabeth Yeorath 
the wife of Edmund Thomas was buried the 13th day of February, in the 
year of our Lord God 1688, age 177." Extracts from the parish register of 
JLanmaes in the county of Glamorgan. Op. Cit. Vol. lxiii. pt. 1, p. 106. 

Cases of longevity are not rare among persons not distinguished for their 
mental powers, and the close of life with such, is frequently a state of mere 
existence, " sans every thing." A circumstance as remarkable as any con- 
nected with the longevity of Dr. Holyoke is, that he retained the power of 
using his intellect with vigor and energy, and of communicating his ideas 
intelligibly to the last of his days. His letters written after he was an hun- 
dred years old prove this. 






k 



O 

Pi 

^ Gl 

1) 00 

^ O, 

CO 00 

o S 

O -H 

■3 Pi 



4-1 ^ 




> »} 



k if 1 1 & f 

Jv*. <C « 1 j* * & V 

y •$■ 1 Inv* -l^ j 







S3 

Boston united to pay their respect to him, by invit- 
ing him to a public dinner. At this period he ap- 
peared in perfect health, and his firm and elastic 
step, his cheerful and benevolent looks, his easy and 
graceful manners, the model of the old school of 
gentlemen, his nicely powdered wig, his dress 
arranged with studied neatness, and just enough of 
antiquated fashion to remind one that he belonged 
to the generation gone by, but not outraging the 
proprieties of the present mode, his accustomed 
nosegay slipped through his button-hole, and his 
affectionate and grateful greeting of those who had 
assembled to do him honor, will never be forgotten, 
or remembered without delight, by those who wit- 
nessed them. He partook of the hilarity of the 
occasion with an evident zest, and when called upon 
for a toast, offered in his own hand-writing, a senti- 
ment perfectly appropriate and professional, accom- 
panied with a paternal and touching benediction 
upon the medical brethren who were present. At 
the same time the District Medical Society testified 
their respect for him, by requesting him to sit for his 
portrait to be placed in their library. It is from this 
portrait the print is taken which is prefixed to this 
memoir. The anniversary of his birth day was on 
the 13th August, and on the 18th September, the 
centennial anniversary of the settlement of the town, 
he was again induced to take part in the public cel- 
ebration. On this occasion he offered the toast we 
have selected to preserve as an autograph. The 



34 

excitement of these occasions appeared rather to 
invigorate him than otherwise, and he afterwards 
visited Boston and Cambridge, and the place of his 
birth ; upon all which occasions he enjoyed much 
gratification. This was, however, the last lighting 
up of the spark of life, and in about a month he be- 
gan to feel the approach of that disease which ter- 
minated his life. 

Among those to whose unwearied assiduities the 
subject of this memoir owed much of the comfort of 
his latter days, it may be allowed us to mention his 
eldest daughter, Miss Margaret Holyoke. After 
the marriage of his other daughters, and the death 
of Mrs. Holyoke, in 1802, the care of his family 
devolved on his daughter Margaret. She was an 
excellent woman, of a contemplative, well-informed 
mind, devotedly fond of her father whom she held 
in the highest veneration. From the character of 
her mind she was well fitted to be her father's best 
companion, and her death, which occurred January 
25, 1825, was a severe blow to him, and appears to 
have cast an unusual gloom upon his prospects of 
prolonged life. In recording the event of her death 
among some of the domestic occurrences of the year, 
he adds the feeling aspiration, " Sit anima mea, 
tecum, filia carissima !" 

The close of Dr. Holyoke's life was a period of 
quiet and calm domestic enjoyment, but not of idle- 
ness or disgust. He received the visits of those 
who waited on him to testify their respect for his 






35 

venerable and virtuous character, with great affabil- 
ity and apparent gratification. He did not make 
the uncertainty of life and his being near the close 
of it an excuse for inaction. After he had com- 
pleted his hundredth year he commenced a manu- 
script, which he entitled recollections, in which he 
proposed to minute down some of the changes in 
the manners, dress, dwellings and employments of 
the inhabitants of Salem. * This occupation was 
suggested to him by a letter of inquiries on these 
topics from a gentleman of antiquarian taste and re- 
search in Pennsylvania. The few slight memoranda 
we have inserted in the Appendix, will show the 
nature and interest of this task which was inter- 
rupted by his last sickness. 

In seeking for the causes of his length of life, and 
enjoyment of health, it seems obvious that he owed 
these to a rare combination of natural advantages 
with the habits of life best calculated to preserve 
these advantages. He was a happy example of a 
sound mind, associated with a sound body, neither 
of which was matured or maintained at the expense 
of the other. In his person he was rather below the 
middle stature, but it was impossible for the most 
indifferent observer, not to perceive that his body 
was compact and well built, and exactly propor- 
tioned ; and that it was calculated for strength, ac- 
tivity and endurance. His mind was likewise not 
characterized by any striking or prominent quality, 

* See Appendix 0. 



36 

but was active, vigorous, exact, observant and dis- 
tinguishing. His good state of health was not owing 
to his entire exemption from occasional acute dis- 
eases. When he was but seven years old he suf- 
fered a severe attack of tetanus from drinking cold 
water, and to this cause he sometimes attributed the 
spasmodic affection of the muscles of the lower 
limbs, which was so frequently brought on by any 
food which disagreed with his stomach. During his 
pupilage he had a severe fever, attended with 
delirium, which lasted more than a month, and 
during the rest of his life was occasionally confined 
by cholera, by fever, and by inflammations of the 
throat and lungs. He required and sought but little 
relaxation from professional occupations, and these 
of the simplest kind. Occasional short visits to the 
neighboring towns, where his connexions resided, a 
weekly evening conversation club,* and the culture 

* Dr. Holyoke took great pleasure in the meetings of his Monday night 
club. Their object was improvement in philosophy and literature by reading 
and conversation. Some of the most amiable and distinguished individuals 
who ever belonged to this town were associated in it. Their meetings were 
interrupted by the breaking out of the revolution, and commenced again in 
1779. During the period of their suspension, or at least a part of it, so strong 
were the Doctor's attachments to the memory of his friends, that he was ac- 
customed to devote the usual evening of their meeting every week, to con- 
versing about them with his family, who were assembled for the purpose. 
In this club originated the " Social Library," and the " Philosophical Library," 
which, united, formed the foundation of our Athenaeum. The " Social Li- 
brary," was a very respectable collection of books for the period in which 
it was founded, viz. 1760. It was created by donations of books from the 
private libraries of the founders and by a subscription of money. It was 
afterwards enlarged by assessments. The occasion of forming the " Philo- 
sophical Library," was the capture in a prize vessel during the revolutionary 
war of the private library of the celebrated chemist, Kir wan. Some of the 






37 

of his garden, were his principal resources for amuse- 
ment. As an indoor recreation he was fond of the 
sober game of chess, which was the only game of 
skill he was accustomed to play at. He now and 
then indulged in a party upon the water in summer, 
and for many years of the early part of his life, in 
his favorite exercise of skating upon the ice in win- 
ter, in which exercise he w T as well skilled. He 
sometimes too, upon festive occasions, till he thought 
his age rendered it unbecoming, mixed in the 
sprightly dance, of which he was said to be fond. 
His avocations did not afford him the leisure to 

best books of our Athenaeum were obtained from tbese collections, such as 
the Philosophical Transactions, Memoirs of the French Academy and other 
learned bodies. Dr. Holyoke was among the earliest and most liberal con- 
tributors to these institutions, of which he was a trustee till they were merged 
in the Athenaeum in 1810. He was trustee and president of this corporation 
from its foundation to his death. 

Mr. Thomas Robie was the last survivor except Dr. Holyoke of the ante- 
revolutionary club, and the venerable senior pastor of the first church is the 
only one now living of the Monday night club. This latter gentleman has 
always been distinguished for his zeal in philosophical pursuits, and Dr. Hol- 
yoke was often his associate in many interesting experiments and astronomi- 
cal observations. 

Among the names of the persons who constituted Dr. Holyoke's club and 
his intimate acquaintance, in those days, were those of Andrew Oliver, Judge 
of the County Court, Nath. Ropes and Benj. Lynde, Judges of the Superior 
Court, Rev. Wm. McGilchrist of the Episcopal church, who was educated at 
Oxford and distinguished as a mathematician, Rev. Thomas Barnard of the 
First church, Rev. Dr. Barnard of the North church, Dr. Ernestus Plummer, 
Dr. Putnam, who was cotemporary with Dr. Holyoke, Mr. Wm. Pynchon, 
an eminent lawyer, Col. Pickman, Col. Frye, Col. Browne, afterwards Gov- 
ernor of Bermuda, Col. Eppes Sargent, Col. Ichabod Plaisted, Mr. Stephen 
Higginson, Mr. Thomas Robie, and Mr. Sam'l Curwen. More than half a 
century ago, "an eminent Boston divine used to say there was no pulpit in 
which he should not choose to preach an ordinary sermon sooner than that 
of Mr. Thomas Barnard, of the First church in Salem, to whose parish most 
of these men belonged. Many of them were men of accurate literary attain- 
ments, great critical acumen, and of considerable research in theology. 



38 

carry on literary or scientific correspondence to the 
same extent that some other eminent men have done. 
But he kept up a regular and sprightly interchange 
of friendly letters with some intimate friends in this 
country and England, and numbered among his 
occasional correspondents several eminent philoso- 
phers of his day, among whom were Dr. Priestley 
and Sir Charles Blagden. His taste for the belles 
letters and the fine arts, which he manifested early 
in life, would doubtless have enabled him to have 
made a respectable figure as a man of taste ; but all 
these pursuits seem to have been early laid aside, 
lest they should interfere with his medical studies 
and occupations. While in college he took lessons 
in drawing and painting, and occasionally in the 
early part of his life, exhibited slight specimens of 
his talent in this line. He was somewhat fond of 
poetry,* and appears to have been capable of appre- 
ciating its beauties and judging of its merits. 

Of his temperance there is one remark which we 
think it of consequence to make, since it shows the 
error of those who think that temperance consists in 
relinquishing some articles of food or drink, while 
they indulge to an injurious excess in others. His 
was a temperance of moderate desires, that never 
led him to err in quantity, and thereby rendered him 
less solicitous about the quality of his food. The 
following letter, written last autumn, in answer to 
one he received from a gentleman, who had ad- 



See Appendix P. 



39 

dressed to him some inquiries concerning his habits 
and mode of life, gives a satisfactory and interesting 
account of these matters. 

To WlLLIAMSVILLE, PERSON CoUNTT, 

North Carolina. 

Salem, OcVr— 1828. 
Sir, 

I received yours of the 20th ult. on y e 30th, 
wherein you wish me to give you some Account of 
my Mode of Life, &c. — In answer to which I would 
first mention that I was providentially blessed with 
an excellent Constitution — that I never injured this 
constitution by Intemperance of any kind — but in- 
vigorated it by constant Exercise, having from my 
30th to my 80th Year walked on foot (in the Prac- 
tice of my Profession) — probably as many as 5 or 6 
miles every day, amounting to more than a million* 
of miles, and tho' sometimes much fatigued, the next 
Night's refreshing Sleep, always completely restored 
me. In early life, between 20 and 30, I used to ride 
on Horse back, but being often pestered by my 
Horses slipping their Bridles I found it more con- 
venient to walk. 

As to my Diet, having been taught to eat of any 

* This seems to have been a slip of the pen, the following is his own calcu- 
lation, made in 1823, and which from his great dread of exaggeration falls 
short of half the actual amount. " If from my age of 20 to 80 years I have 
walked 5 miles a day, which is a moderate calculation, I must have gone in 

that 60 years, 109,500 miles. 

And in the first 20 and last 15 years, . . 38,325 

In 95 years probably, Total, .... 147,825 



40 

thing that was provided for me, and having always 
a good Appetite, I am never anxious about my food, 
and I do not recollect any thing, that is commonly 
eaten, that does not agree with my Stomach, except 
fresh roasted Pork, which tho' very agreeable to my 
Palate, almost always disagrees with me ; for which 
however I have a remedy, in the Spirit of Sal Am- 
moniac. Eight or Ten drops of Aqua Ammonia 
pura in a wine glass of Water, gives me relief after 
Pork, and indeed after any thing else which offends 
my stomach. As to the Quantity, I am no great 
Eater, and I find my appetite sooner satisfied now 
than formerly ; — there is one peculiarity in my Diet 
which as it may perhaps have contributed to Health 
I would mention ; I am fond of Fruit, and have this 
30 or more years daily indulged in eating freely of 
those of the Season, as Strawberries, Currants, 
Peaches, Plums, Apples, &c. which in summer and 
winter I eat just before Dinner, and seldom at any 
other time, and indeed very seldom eat any thing 
whatever between meals. — My Breakfast I vary 
continually. Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, with toasted 
bread and butter, Milk with Bread toasted in hot 
weather, but never any meat in my Life — seldom 
the same Breakfast more than 2 or 3 days running. 
Bread of Flour makes a large portion of my Food, 
perhaps near 1-2. After Dinner I most commonly 
drink one glass of Wine — plain boiled rice I am 
fond of — it makes nearly 1-2 of my Dinner perhaps 
as often as every other Day — I rarely eat Pickles or 



41 

any high seasoned Food — Vegetable food of one 
kind or other makes commonly 2-3 or 3-4 of my 
nourishment — the condiments I use are chiefly Mus- 
tard, Horse radish and Onions. As to Drinks, I 
seldom take any but at meal times and with my 
Pipe — in younger Life my most common draft was 
Cider, seldom Wine, seldom or never Beer or Ale 
or distilled Spirits — But for the last 40 or 50 years, 
my most usual drink has been a Mixture, a little sin- 
gular indeed, but as for me it is still palateable and 
agreeable, I still prefer it — The Mixture is this, viz. 
Good West India Rum 2 Spoonfuls, Good Cider 
whether new or old 3 Spoonfuls, of Water 9 or 10 
Spoonfuls — of this Mixture (which I suppose to be 
about the strength of common Cider) I drink about 
1-2 a Pint with my Dinner and about the same 
Quantity with my Pipe after Dinner and my Pipe 
in the Evening, never exceeding a Pint the whole 
Day : and I desire nothing else except one glass of 
Wine immediately after Dinner the whole day. I 
generally take one Pipe after Dinner and another in 
the Evening, and hold a small piece of pigtail To- 
bacco in my mouth from Breakfast till near Dinner, 
and again in the Afternoon till tea ; this has been 
my practice for 80 years — I use no Snuff — I drink 
tea about sunset and eat with it a small slice of 
Bread toasted with Butter — I never eat any thing 
more till Breakfast. 

I have not often had any complaint from indiges- 
tion, but when I have, abstinence from Breakfast or 



42 

Dinner, or both, has usually removed it ; indeed I 
have several times thrown off serious Complaints by 
Abstinence. — As to Clothing, it is what my Friends 
call thin ; I never wear Flannel next my Skin tho' 
often advised to it, and am less liable to take cold, as 
it is called, than most people — a good warm double 
breasted Waist-Coat and a Cloth coat answers me 
for winter, and as the season grows warmer I gra- 
dually conform my Covering to it. — As to the Pas- 
sions, Sir, I need not tell you that when indulged, 
they injure the Health ; that a calm, quiet self pos- 
session, and a moderation in our Expectations and 
Pursuits, contribute much to our Health, as well as 
our happiness, and that Anxiety is injurious to both. 

I had a good Set of Teeth but they failed me 
gradually, without Pain, so that by 80 I lost them all. 

Thus, Sir, you have, blundering and imperfect as 
it is, an answer to your Requests, with my best 
wishes that it may be of any service to the Purpose 
for which it was made — But must rely upon it that 
Nothing I " have written be made public in my 
Name.* Wishing you long Life and many happy 
Days, I am Yours, &c. 

E. A. H. 

P. S. I forgot to speak of my repose. When I 
began the practice of Physick, I was so often call'd 

* This prohibition could only have regard to the period of his life time, and 
was occasioned by that extreme modesty which always rendered it painful to 
the Doctor to be held up to the public notice. 



43 

up soon after retiring to Rest, that I found it most 
convenient to sit to a late Hour, and thus acquired 
a Habit of sitting up late, which necessarily occa- 
sioned my lying in bed to a late Hour in the Morn- 
ing — till 7 o'cl'k in Summer and 8 in Winter. My 
Business was fatiguing and called for ample repose, 
and I have always taken care to have a full propor- 
tion of Sleep, which I suppose has contributed to 
my longevity. 

A lameness in my right hand obliges me to em- 
ploy an amanuensis.* 

In summing up the character of our venerable 
friend, it is not too much to say, he was a perfect 
model of the general practitioner of medicine. His 
manners were equally removed from servility and 
arrogance. Free from dogmatism, and trusting to 
the mild dignity of his manners to enforce his pre- 
cepts, nothing excited his displeasure more than the 
swaggering, Radcliffe style assumed by some men 
to impose an idea of their consequence upon the 
vulgar, who are sometimes prone to believe that ex- 
cessive rudeness is a mark of genius, and that con- 
summate insolence, is, not unfrequently, coupled 
with consummate skill. These people he used to 
term " medical bucks." 

* This lameness was occasioned by a slipping of the tendons of the exte- 
rior communis digitorum from their proper place in the groove of the 
metacarpal bones, just where the knuckle is formed, into the spaces between 
these bones. Dr. Holyoke always attributed this lameness to the absorption 
of the bone from age and not to disease. 



44 

His regard for truth was scrupulous and sincere, 
and this was obvious in his reasoning upon facts, for 
he was never known to form a deduction which re- 
quired the sacrifice or modification of an important 
fact in the premises ; but he rather suffered his 
judgment to remain suspended, and waited for a 
farther insight into the operations of nature. From 
the same cause, a letter of recommendation or intro- 
duction coming from him, even in behalf of the most 
valued of his friends, was sure to contain not one 
word more, than came within the scope of the au- 
thor's personal knowledge and observation. 

The respect in which his person and character 
were held, by the inhabitants of this place, was 
almost enthusiastic. The whole of the present 
generation have been taught to look upon him with 
veneration, and to pronounce his name with affec- 
tion and respect. His name was sought for in every 
undertaking for the welfare of the community, as a 
sort of passport to the confidence of his fellow citi- 
zens. When a few years since some pilferer had 
taken from his door-post the thermometer which 
had been suspended there for so many years, from 
which he had taken his daily observations of tempe- 
rature, the act was viewed as a sort of sacrilege, and 
it was generally agreed that it could not have been 
the deed of a Salem thief, for it was thought there 
could be none in town so base, as not to respect the 
property of the Salem patriarch. It is difficult to 
speak of the estimation in which all classes united 



45 

in holding him, without being suspected of exagge- 
ration, but it is certainly safe to say that all who 
knew him, regarded him as having reached a height 
of moral rectitude as elevated as was ever attained 
by uninspired human nature ; and what his eulogist 
said of him was literally the absolute conviction of 
his friends, " that knowingly to do wrong, in a sin- 
gle instance, would have required in him as severe 
an effort as the practice of elevated virtue in most 
men." This veneration of all who knew him must 
be regarded as arising from the possession of some 
peculiar and unusual moral qualities. He was obvi- 
ously less selfish than most men. His ready gene- 
rosity and the moderate competence with which he 
always contented himself, prove this. But still more 
peculiar was the perfect simplicity and singleness of 
heart which marked his moral conduct. There was 
no effort, he acted right because he felt right, and 
every one could see that the kindness of his manner 
was a sincere expression of the kindness of his heart. 
It was the perfect confidence which every one had 
in the habitual rectitude and purity of his intentions 
that induced persons of all ages and of all classes to 
look upon him as a sympathizing friend to whom 
they might safely intrust their most important in- 
terests. His sickness and expected death were the 
most common topics of inquiry with the citizens of 
Salem for some days previous to his decease ; and 
when this event took place, it was announced by the 
tolling of all the church bells of the town, a mark of 



46 

respect never known to have been shown to any 
others than the late presidents of the United States. 
All classes of persons thronged to his funeral to pay 
their tribute of respect to his memory, and the 
eulogy, pronounced over his remains by his pastor 
and intimate friend, the reverend Mr. Brazer, was a 
chastened effort of genuine and touching eloquence, 
and a delineation of his moral and religious charac- 
ter, which was recognized as faithful and just, by 
the crowded assembly before whom it was pronoun- 
ced. As that production is now before the public, 
we have avoided enlarging upon some points in re- 
gard to the character of Dr. Holyoke which are ably 
and fully expatiated upon by his eulogist. 

Dr. Holyoke enjoyed his usual health until No- 
vember 24th, 1828, when on returning from a short 
ride, he received an injury in his right leg in getting 
out of the carriage. The iron step struck him just 
below the knee, and turned down a triangular flap 
of skin of about two inches in length, an accident 
from which he was sometime in recovering. After 
this period his health visibly declined, although he 
continued to exercise nearly as usual until the 25th 
of January, after which time he ceased to go out. 
About the close of November he began to experi- 
ence pain about the region of the stomach, which 
for some time had a diurnal exacerbation at about 
11 o'clock, A. M. with occasional hiccough. This 
pain destroyed his usual cheerfulness and spirits, for 
an hour or more of each day, and after this the de- 



47 

pression passed off and his usual serenity returned. 
His pulse was not remarkably altered except occa- 
sionally intermitting ; a phenomenon which was 
common during several of the last years of his life. 
On the first of March he went into his chamber, 
although on that day he retained enough of vigor to 
dress himself as usual. From this time he was prin- 
cipally confined to his bed, and his appetite greatly 
diminished ; but with the diminution of appetite, 
and consequently of food, the pain of the stomach 
abated. About fourteen days previous to his death, 
he was attacked with pain of the lower extremities, 
principally in the heel and great toe of the left foot. 
After five or six days of this pain, the skin of the 
parts most pained grew darker than natural, and at 
length complete sphacelus took place, ultimately 
extending to the knee. About a week before his 
death he suffered pain of the extremities in an in- 
tense degree, and on this occasion, in the course of 
twelve hours, he took 40 drops of Acet. Opii. which 
he bore well, and which had the effect of producing 
comparative ease. He now felt conscious that deli- 
rium was approaching, and mentioned that he should 
lose his senses, and had occasional periods of deliri- 
um till his death, which occurred at six o'clock of 
Tuesday, the 31st of March. On the Sunday previ- 
ous to the day of his death, at ten A. M. he was 
raised in bed to discharge his urine, which he was 
not able to accomplish, and in four or five minutes 
fell back exhausted. Stupor immediately super- 






48 

vened, and he remained with his eyes partially 
closed, and unable to speak or to swallow ; the left 
side paralyzed, the right hand and arm frequently in 
motion, pulse hardly perceptible. 

The following are his own memoranda in refer- 
ence to the state of his health for sometime previ- 
ous to his decease, and, except that his expressions 
concerning a "vacuity" are not perfectly definite, 
and perhaps imply that there was some space within 
the cranium not occupied by the brain and the effused 
fluid, must be regarded as a specimen of sound pa- 
thological reasoning, fully justified by the state of 
the parts as exhibited on dissection. 

February 9th, 1826. 

" I am now between 97 and 98 years old, and 
enjoy good health, excepting now and then a cramp 
in my lower extremities, which I have always been 
subject to, and the complaint I now attempt to de- 
scribe. 

" About 10 or 11 years ago, I found that in walk- 
ing I was apt to lose my equilibrium, and sometimes 
to stagger like one intoxicated, particularly if I 
looked up to see the town clock, or how the wind 
blew, in doing which I have several times nearly 
fallen to the ground ; this complaint gradually in- 
creased. 

" About two months past I perceived an odd and 
unusual sensation in my head when I suddenly 



49 

changed my posture, which to my feeling was as if 
a moderately ponderous fluid fluctuated over the 
surface of the brain, and when I turned in my bed, 
I felt as it were a fluid flowing from the side I had 
been laying on, to the other side of my head. And 
when I sat up in bed, after having been awhile on 
my left side, I felt as if a fluid floated over to the 
right, and carried my head with considerable force 
along with it. When I lay my head down on my 
pillow at night, I have a sensation like what I sup- 
pose would arise from the pressure of a fluid flow- 
ing down to the back of my head, and crowding it 
down hard upon the pillow ; this sensation of crowd- 
ing continues but 3 or 4 seconds, after which I feel 
no more of it till I alter my posture. 

" One morning in November last, upon getting 
out of bed, the impetus of the fluid (if there is one) 
was so great as to throw me on the floor, though I 
exerted my utmost endeavor to keep myself on my 
feet ; since which I have been more on my guard, 
and though I have never since been thrown to the 
ground, I have twice since been thrown into a chair 
which stood by the bed side, which saved me from 
falling. While I sit still I feel no complaint, but 
every sudden motion of the head is apt to produce a 
trace of it. 

" This fluctuation, which never lasts more than a 
very few seconds, is not attended with the least de- 
gree of pain, nor any loss of consciousness even for 
a moment, nor am I sensible that the faculties of 



50 

my mind are injured or affected by it, in the least ; 
nor have I ever perceived any gyratory motion such 
as vertiginous patients complain of. 

" Presuming that in order to our walking steadily 
it is necessary that the cranium be completely filled 
by the brain, and observing that persons greatly ad- 
vanced in age were apt to walk unsteadily, to lose 
their balance, to stumble and fall, as is the case with 
me, I am led to suspect that the brain in such sub- 
jects becomes shrivelled and contracted, and that 
from this cause a vacuity takes place. 

" And may not a fluid be lodged between the 
dura and pia mater, without injuring the functions 
of the brain, if it be not so accumulated as to com- 
press it ? 

" When I first felt the fluid it seemed as thin as 
water, and to shift its place as quickly as water 
would, but lately it appears in less quantity, and as 
if more viscid, and longer in passing from one side 
of my head to the other. 

" I would observe further, that from my first feel- 
ing the propensity to stagger and stumble, the com- 
plaint has been invariably greater in the evening 
than in the fore part of the day. 

Queries. 
" 1. May not old age, or some disease, induce 
such a shrinking, or collapse, of the contents of the 
cranium, as that they may not completely fill it, 



51 

without sensibly injuring the functions of the brain ? 
And if so 

"2. May not a serous fluid occupy that void, 
without injury to the functions of the brain, provi- 
ded it be not accumulated in such quantities as to 
take up more room than the brain did in its natural 
healthy state ? 

" 3. And would not such a state of the encepha- 
lon, account for the appearances of the symptoms 
just mentioned ?" 

The foregoing contains a connected account of 
the facts and his reasoning upon them. The fol- 
lowing detached observations, show the continuance 
of the symptoms with some modifications, and prove 
his opinion to have remained unchanged concerning 
the nature of the alterations within the cranium, 
which he was accustomed to consider the natural 
consequences of his advanced age, rather than the 
result of any disease. 

" My idea of the disease is this — I presume that 
we are not able to walk steadily, unless the cavity 
of the cranium be so full as to prevent the brain 
from being agitated when the head is in motion. I 
presume also that by disease or old age, the brain 
may be so shrunk or shrivelled as to leave such a 
vacuity as to allow the brain to vacillate, and so 
produce the staggering and unsteady walking, so 
common to persons much advanced in age. 



52 

" And if such a cavity exists, I presume it may 
become dropsical, as every other cavity of the body 
may. 

" And if the fluid does not entirely fill the cavity, 
there may be a fluctuation ; and as in this case there 
can be no compression, the functions of the brain 
will in no degree be injured by such a dropsy. 

" As the whole human frame shrinks with age, 
and we grow less in all our dimensions, I see no 
absurdity in supposing the brain to do so too ; un- 
less we suppose the bony cavity to contract in pro- 
portion — which I think is not probable. 

" I have stated my case to several physicians, but 
none of them are disposed to admit of a collection 
of a fluid between the dura and pia mater ; but as 
my impressions and feelings are distinct and deter- 
minate as if I saw the fluid with my eyes, I am com- 
pelled to believe that such a one does really exist. 
May not a complete fullness of the cavity of the 
cranium be necessary to enable us to walk steadily ? 
May not the tottering and proneness to fall, incident 
to age, be accounted for by supposing the brain to 
shrivel and contract, as the whole body does in ad- 
vanced age, so as to leave a vacuity ; and may not 
that vacuity be supposed to contain a fluid, as every 
other cavity sometimes does ? Now if this fluid does 
not occupy so much space as the brain did, the 
function of the brain may not be injured, though 
the instability may be much increased." 



53 



In the interesting post mortem examination which 
follows, will be found some explanation of the 
symptoms described above, and the principal facts, 
the shrinking or collapse of the brain from age, and 
existence of a fluid to supply the deficiency, accord 
precisely with the language used above. At this 
examination all the physicians of the town were in- 
vited to attend, and most of them w 7 ere present, and 
their attention was particularly directed to those 
organs and textures which are usually found affected 
in very aged persons. It must be admitted that 
these organs and textures were found in a surpriz- 
ingly sound state, and the dissection fully justified 
the remark of a learned writer upon old age,* that 
most aged persons die of actual disease in organs 
not worn out by the length of time they have been 
performing their functions. The bodies of very 
many persons at 60 years, exhibit on dissection 
more of the appearances which are thought to result 
from age, than did Dr. Holyoke's. 

On examining the body externally, it was found 
to be somewhat emaciated, the left leg sphacelated 
to the knee, the abdomen lank and dark colored, the 
thorax resounding naturally in every part, the scalp 
nearly denuded of hair. On dividing and turning 



* Sir A. Carlisle. 



54 

back the scalp, which was very thin and delicate, 
not a single drop of blood flowed. Although the 
utmost care was taken in sawing the cranium, as 
soon as the saw penetrated the inner table, a trans- 
parent fluid began to flow, and on removing the 
calvarium, it was found that the dura mater was 
adherent to the bone nearly throughout its whole 
extent, an alteration which did not seem to depend 
on disease, the distinction between the two tables 
of the cranium entirely obliterated, and the texture 
of the bone more dense than common. The tunica 
arachnoidea was very firm and opaque ; the veins 
beneath it were very small, containing but little 
blood. The brain was very firm and dense, and the 
convolutions very strongly marked ; the sulci were 
wide and deep. The color was somewhat darker 
than common, and the whole feeling and appearance 
of the brain was as if it had been subjected to the 
action of alcohol. A small quantity of serous fluid 
was found beneath the tunica arachnoidea. The 
cortical portion of the brain was extremely thin, 
being less than an eighth of an inch in thickness. 
In the ventricles nothing unusual was discovered. 
The pineal gland was extremely small, and contain- 
ed no particle of gritty matter. The cerebellum 
was thought to be disproportionately small. 

On removing the sternum, the lungs collapsed 
throughout, and exhibited the cavity of the thorax 
of unusual capaciousness. The cartilages were 
ossified, but were easily divided by a strong knife. 



55 

The pleurae appeared perfectly free from every mark 
of disease, except in both sides of the thorax there 
was adhesion at the apex of the lung for a small 
extent ; at this part a very superficial portion of both 
lungs was hepatized, but without any mark of re- 
cent disease. Spots of black pulmonary matter 
were very abundant on the surface of the lungs. 
The substance of the lungs was free from disease, 
with the exception above stated. 

The heart was of small size and without fat. 
The pericardium was adherent to a small part of its 
anterior surface at the base. The cavities were 
examined in the course of the blood from the right 
auricle to the aorta, and no alteration of structure 
from the most perfectly healthy state could be dis- 
covered in walls of the cavities, the fossa ovalis, the 
tricuspid valves, the semilunar of the pulmonary ar- 
tery, the mitral valves, and the semilunar or sigmoid 
of the aorta, except perhaps that these latter discov- 
ered a slight degree of rigidity at their attached 
margin, but by no means such as to interfere with 
their flexibility and free motion. The arch of the 
aorta, and several inches of its descending portion, 
were found to be in perfectly healthy condition, ex- 
cept two or three needle-like spiculae of bone. 

On opening the abdomen, the stomach appeared 
smaller than common, and contracted about its mid- 
dle, as if a band were tied round it, and at this part 
its coats felt solid and much thickened. On open- 
ing the stomach, it was found that its middle por- 



56 

tion, including about a third of its extent, and mak- 
ing a complete circumference of the viscus, presented 
the appearance of schirrus, and was contracted so as 
hardly to admit the passage of a finger. This con- 
traction divided the stomach into two portions, of 
which the superior or cardiac portion was the most 
diseased. The mucous coat was corrugated, and 
dark colored, with ecchymosed spots and points. 
About the middle of the great curvature was a super- 
ficial ulcer of an inch in diameter. The pylorus, 
the cardiac orifice, and the aesophagus, were in a 
healthy condition. 

The liver was natural — the gall bladder enlarged 
to twice its natural size, filled with thin chocolate 
colored bile, and a calculus of the size and shape of 
a small nutmeg. The gall ducts pervious and natu- 
ral. The spleen was adherent to the diaphragm 
and omentum, was externally firm, white and of a 
cartilaginous appearance, and its internal substance 
dark colored and semifluid. Small intestines, con- 
tracted, dark colored, and resembling in color the 
sphacelated limb. On the mucous coat, which was 
chocolate colored, the bloodvessels were very turgid, 
the valvular conniventes slightly thickened. The 
large intestines were more free from disease, the 
valve of the ccecum perfectly natural in structure. 
Both kidneys contained on their surface and in their 
substance several small hydatids. The ureters 
were pervious and natural. The bladder was filled 
with urine, and presented a perfectly natural struc- 



51 

ture, except the interlacement of the fibres of the 
muscular coat was more distinct and prominent than 
common. The prostate gland was not enlarged, 
and presented nothing unnatural to the feeling. 

It is perhaps a fact worth noticing, that there 
should have been so little derangement of structure 
in the parts last described, which are so commonly 
diseased, in advanced life. On the evening before 
his death, his motions indicating uneasiness about 
the bladder, his urine was evacuated with a catheter. 
Not the least difficulty was experienced in passing 
the instrument. 

The descending aorta and the iliac arteries were 
flexible and free from ossification. 



APPENDIX. 



A. 

EXPERIMENTS ON EVAPORATION. 

The Committee are aware that the fact of evaporation pro- 
ducing cold was known a few years previous to the date of the 
following experiments. But it is hardly probable they could have 
been promulgated in this country. The originality of the experi- 
ments must therefore be a matter of some uncertainty. 

" The 16th of June, 1758, my thermometer being at 63°, I 
touched the foot of it with a feather dipped in spirit of rosemary, 
which was not quite so strong as proof spirit. The mercury 
presently began to lower, and in a few minutes got down to 63°, 
— just 5° less. As soon as the thermometer had risen to its for- 
mer standing height, I touched the foot with spirit nitri dulcis, 
which immediately produced the same effect, — and in about four 
or five minutes, brought the mercury down 5°, which (the evapo- 
ration being finished) began to rise again in about six minutes, — 
and in fifteen minutes regained its proper standing height. I 
soon after applied water, which had stood in the same room all 
the day before, (as indeed both the above mentioned liquids had,) 
as above, when it lowered the mercury 2°, namely from 65° to 
63°, in the space of about two minutes. I then, in the fourth 
place, took a feather, and holding it in my mouth, wet it with 
saliva, and touched with it the foot of the thermometer, when 
the mercury was standing at 65° , which in three minutes and a 



60 

half, fell down to 63°, although upon its first application, it rose 
a little, perhaps a third of a degree, — which fully shows that cold 
is somehow produced by evaporation." 



B. 

REFLECTIONS ON TIME. 

Of his philosophical habit of viewing all subjects, and of 
seeking a rational mode of accounting for phenomena, the fol- 
lowing thoughts, extracted from a little memorandum book found 
among his papers, may be taken as an early specimen. 

" Of Time.— Sunday, July 28th, after lOh. eve'g,— 1751. 
Time seems to bear the same relation to infinite duration, as 
place does to infinite space, — they are neither of them any thing 
till they are measured, or bounded. There is one property of 
time, which is apparent, I believe, to every one who considers 
any thing about it, (I am sure it has been so to me ever since I 
have been able to measure time,) which is perhaps something 
difficult to account for ; — that is, that the last year always ap- 
pears shorter than any other with which the observer can com- 
pare it. I believe the reason of it may be something like this ; 
viz. that the oftener any idea passes the mind the more slight is 
the trace that is left behind it. In short, the same idea may 
pass the mind so often, and become so habitual, that the mind 
shall not reflect upon it at all. For instance, the first time a 
man, not born there, sees the city of London, — the concourse of 
people, the magnificence of the buildings, &c. — the traces left 
in the mind are deep, and perhaps if he should never see Lon- 
don again, yet he would never forget the first impression. But 
let him take up his abode there for any length of time, and every 
day he will be less and less affected with these objects : — at 
length he will pass crowds without noticing them, — of the mag- 
nificence of the buildings he will no more be sensible, — nay, he 
will hear bow-bells ring without knowing it. This, I say, seems 
to be the case before us : — spring and autumn have nothing new 
in them to one who has seen them fifteen or twenty times over, 
— and summer's heat, or winter's cold pass equally unobserved. 



61 

But if to one in the bloom of life the year appear bo short, and 
the seasons all blended one with another, — what must the last 
year be to one fifty or sixty years old ? Methinks time can then 
scarcely be measured, — and ages then appear like years to youth. 
Yet time is still measured out by hours, days, months, and years, 
— all of the same length as they were before. What then, if 
they still appear shorter to me, — to me they are shorter. Oh ! 
may I have time to repent." 



SEPTEMBER STORM OF 1815. 

The months of August and September, were remarkable for 
storms and violent tempests upon the ocean, from the line to our 
latitude. On the 23d September, the wind being at N. E. in 
the morning, between 7 and 8 o'clock, the wind began to blow a 
storm, which continued with great violence, nearly approaching 
to a hurricane, till 2 o'clock, when it began to abate. It blew 
down the tops of many chimneys, blew in many casements, 
threw down Lombard poplars, Peach trees, Apple and other fruit 
trees. But this town suffered comparatively little. The storm 
seemed to be most severe about Providence, where the lower 
parts of the town were inundated by the rise of the water in the 
river, 14 or 15 feet higher than the usual tides, vessels were 
driven far up on the land, houses, barns, stores, were blown down 
or washed away by the tide, to the immense destruction of goods 
and property of every kind. The storm extended northwardly 
beyond the river St. Lawrence, but how far we have not heard ; 
on the 20th, (three days before this,) a most violent hurricane 
was felt at Turks Island, which did immense damage, and more 
than any other we have heard from ; among other losses 'tis said 
400,000 hhds. of salt were destroyed. 

N. B. The blast was so violent, that it blew the spray of the 
salt water of the ocean from the sea coast into the country 30 
miles or upwards ; most probably 90 miles, certainly as far as 



62 

Worcester, which destroyed the verdure of the leaves upon all 
the trees — blew all the apples and other fruit to the ground, and 
injured but did not destroy, the Indian corn — threw down fences 
and barns, and killed cattle, but happily few men were lost in 
this vicinity, though southerly ten or twelve persons were killed 
and drowned in various places. We have no record of any 
storm equal to this, since the settlement of the country. 



D: 

DYSENTERY OF 1761, AND DR. HOLYOKE's TREATMENT. 

In the beginning of September, of this year, a dysentery be- 
gan to prevail, though there were a few seized with it in the 
middle of August, and it had attained to its height in some 
towns, (particularly in Marblehead, where it carried off great 
numbers,) before it grew rife with us. In general the stools were 
not very bloody, and many had not any severe tormina ; in most 
it came on with a slight chill or rigor, and pains of the limbs, 
particularly of the thighs and legs, and great prostration of 
strength ; but few had any great nausea at first. The stools, in 
most, degenerated from a lax thin consistence, to mucous slime 
tinged with blood ; in many the fever was inconsiderable, but 
the case was commonly worse in proportion to the degree of it. 
The general method which succeeded most frequently, and which 
indeed seldom failed, if gone into early, was this ; if there was 
great nausea, I began with an emetic of Ipecac : and Ant : 
Vitr : Cer : but in some I began the cure with a dose of Ant : 
Vitr : Cer : per se, unless, (as sometimes I was forced to,) I dis- 
guised it by adding Rhubarb. I generally gave it to adults in 
this dose and manner ; I took about 6 or 8 grs. of the Ant : 
Vitr : Cer : and put 4 or 5 grs. in one paper and the remainder 
in another, directing the largest part to be given immediately, as 
soon as I was called, whether at morning, at noon, or night, in 
a little molasses, or the pulp of a roasted apple, and the remain- 
der of the dose in 3 hours, if the first did not operate in that 






63 

time. This method of giving it, generally secured the operation 
of a medicine, in its own nature sufficiently precarious ; this 
medicine most commonly answered best, when it operated very 
freely, though in some few instances it occasioned an hyperca- 
tharsis. I directed this purge to be wrought off with water gruel, 
ordering also frequent and large draughts of a decoction of 
Marsh Mallows and Comfrey roots, in water or milk and water. 
At night I gave an anodyne, generally of Liq'd Laudanum, the 
next day I repeated the Ant : Vitr : Cer : in the same manner, 
though in an increased dose, for I almost universally found, that 
if the first dose did not overwork, the second, if not increased, 
would scarcely work at all ; and I constantly gave an anodyne 
at night while the disease continued, unless the pain and tenes- 
mus were inconsiderable, or some very material circumstance 
forbade it. I continued this purge every day, or every other 
day. as the patient's strength would admit, till the stools began to 
put on a more healthy appearance ; and the pain and tormina 
abated ; as soon as I experienced this to be the case, I gave the 
following decoction : R Lign : Campescan : Ras : § i Aq : 
Bullient. lb. iij coq : ad lb. ij. Cap : § ij secunda quaque 
hora — this almost always mitigated the pains and rendered the 
stools of a good consistence, and less frequent, and many dysen- 
teries were cured this season, with this purge and decoction. 



E. 

LETTER ON MERCURIALS. 
From the New York Medical Repository, vol. i. p. 500. 
A letter to Dr. , in Answer to his Queries respecting the Introduc- 
tion of the Mercurial Practice in the vicinity of Boston, Mass. By Ed- 
ward A. Holyoke, M. D., of Salem, Mass. 
Dear Sir, 

When, upon reading some late English publications, you find 
the exhibition of mercurial medicines in inflammatory diseases 
recommended as a ncio practice, though the same is so common 



64 

and frequent in this vicinity ; you naturally inquire how long this 
practice has been in vogue among us, and by whom, or by what 
means, it was first introduced ? 

I know not whether I shall be able to make you any very 
satisfactory answers to these queries : I will however endeavor 
to give you all the information I am possessed of. 

A physician from Scotland, who, as I have heard, was a disci- 
ple of the celebrated Pitcairn, and who was an intimate acquaint- 
ance of some of the first practitioners in Boston, and its neigh- 
borhood, about 60 or 70 years ago, was much in the habit of ad- 
ministering mercurials, and, as I have heard, much promoted 
their use among us, if he did not originate it. 

This practice was much promoted, too, by the writings of Dr. 
Cheyne, then, and for some time after, much read by physicians 
here. 

But what probably most contributed to give the faculty a high 
idea of this medicine, and to bring it acquainted with its virtues 
and uses, was the happy effect it was found to have, in checking 
the progress of a most formidable disease, which broke out in 
this part of America about the year 1734 or 1735, and made 
cruel havoc, sweeping off multitudes of children, wherever its 
baleful influence extended : I mean the disease at that time 
called the throat distemper ; which I suppose to have been of the 
same genus with Dr. Huxham's malignant ulcerous sore throat, 
though it was, I believe, much more frequently and rapidly fatal 
then, than it has appeared of late years among us, or than it has 
been at any time in Europe. No remedies, we are told, were 
for some time of any avail, to stop its career, and almost all who 
sickened, died. At length recourse was had to mercurials, as 
tnrpethum minerale and calomel, and by these, aided by antisep- 
tics, &c. physicians were enabled to make some successful oppo- 
sition to its ravages.* 



* I remember to have heard a little anecdote, which may be worth relating 1 on this 
occasion. A practitioner in a neighboring town, of great repute and extensive prac- 
tice, being called to attend a young woman dangerously ill of this distemper ; having 
ordered her, among other things, 4 or 5 grs. of calomel, was astonished the next day 
to mid her relieved, greatly beyond his expectations. Upon inquiring of his pupil, to 
whom he had given his directions, whether his prescription had been followed ; he 



65 

It was natural to extend the use of so efficacious a remedy to 
other disorders, and being found or thought useful in many other 
cases, it became accordingly much employed. 

But at what period, or by whomsoever the mercurial practice 
might have been introduced, in this part of the country, this is 
certain, that upwards of 45 years ago, it was in common use, 
in pleurisies, quinsies, inflammatory rheumatisms, and other 
phlegmasia?, with several gentlemen who were at that time of 
the first repute as physicians. And this practice was not only 
adopted by their pupils, but by many other practitioners in the 
vicinity, and has not, since that time, been wholly laid aside, 
though I believe it has not been so much in vogue lately, as it 
was from 30 to 45 years ago. The modern European medical 
writers, who are most consulted and followed, by the faculty 
here, being totally silent with respect to the exhibition of mer- 
cury in fever and inflammatory diathesis, has, I doubt not, been 
the occasion of its running into disuse of late. The practice 
has, however, been still kept up by many, and will doubtless go 
on increasing, now European writers give it their sanction. 

An idea that mercurials were improper, if not injurious medi- 
cines, in inflammatory cases in general, seems to have been 
adopted by physicians in Europe ;* but certainly without just 
foundation, if the above account deserves credit ; or if we may 
believe several European performances lately published ; partic- 
ularly a paper written by Dr. Wright, and inserted in the 7th 
volume of Medical Facts, entitled, Practical Observations on 
the Treatment of Acute Diseases, fyc. The encomiums Dr. 
Wright bestows upon the administration of mercury, in a variety 



found that his patient had taken 30 grs. of calomel, instead of 4 or 5, to which mis- 
take he attributed the cure. From this time forward in very dangerous cases, he 
used the medicine in much larger doses than before. 

* I well remember, that, about the year 175-, Dr. Charles Russel, a young physi- 
cian, (who had been pupil to a gentleman who employed mercurials in his practice 
very freely,) then lately returned from London, where he had been some time attend- 
ing at a public Hospital, (Guy's or St. Thomas',) informed me, that upon his relating 
to the medical gentlemen there, the common practice in this part of America, of ad- 
ministering mercurials, particularly calomel, in inflammatory disorders, that they ex- 
pressed great surprise at the account, and told him they should have apprehended the 
most fatal consequences from such a practice. 



66 

of acute cases, so well accords with our long experience of its 
efficacy and safety, in this country, that every practitioner 
amongst us, who has been in the use of it, will readily accede to 
them. 

For my own part, I profess myself to have been in the habit 
of prescribing this mineral ever since the year 1751 or 1752. 
About that time, pleurisies and peripneumonies were remarkably 
prevalent, and might be called epidemical ; the practitioners of 
this place made free use of it at that time, and, as we found its 
effects beneficial, have continued to employ it. in similar cases 
ever since. 

It is not pretended, however, that this practice is universally 
successful, or that it is admissible in all subjects : some persons, 
as experience shows, cannot bear mercury ; a great degree of 
debility, and irritability, being the immediate consequence of its 
exhibition, even when given in very moderate doses. Others, 
from great tenderness and irritability of bowels, seem incapable 
of admitting a quantity of the medicine sufficient to affect the 
system. And others, from a certain peculiarity of constitution, 
though the bowels bear it well, are but little apt to be affected by 
it, although it be taken freely, and for a considerable length of 
time. But so far as my recollection serves me, I have never 
known a failure in pneumonia, where the patient began to take 
it early, could bear it well, the mouth became sore, and a gentle 
ptyalism came on in a few days. 

The preparation of mercury most commonly made use of was 
mercurius dulcis, or calomel ; in larger doses joined with some 
purgative, when designed to act as a cathartic ; and in smaller 
doses, of one or two grains, as an alterant, or when the inten- 
tion was to affect the system, and then it was frequently com- 
bined with camphor, and sometimes with some preparation of an- 
timony, and sometimes with small doses of opium ; or with all of 
them together, as the prescriber judged most proper ; though, in 
some cases, the native mercury, rubbed down with terebinth, 
&c. was preferred. 

Besides these, the turpethum minerale was often given in a 
few grains, (from 1 to 4,) with a little ipecac, as an emetic ; than 



67 

which the Materia Medica does not, perhaps, afford one more 
certain or more efficacious ; especially in inflammatory quinsies, 
the croup, or generally when tenacious phlegm or pituit abounds 
in the stomach. Small doses, too, of this last preparation, as 
one third, or half a grain, given in a little Cons. Rosar. or honey, 
and repeated at short intervals, as two or three hours, have been 
found to be most powerfully expectorant, in pneumony, where 
the lungs have been greatly obstructed and loaded with viscid 
phlegm ; and I have seen a number of instances, where patients 
who seemed on the point of suffocation, were snatched from the 
jaws of death, by a few doses of this medicine. 

My intention in this letter, however, you are sensible, is not to 
enter into the mode of exhibiting mercurials, much less to treat 
of any particular disease ; my design is merely to answer your 
queries ; to corroborate Dr. Wright's practice, by showing how 
it corresponds with a practice that has long been common among 
us here ; and to show, that, in this part of the country at least, 
the same medicine has been successfully employed, certainly for 
nearly half a century, and probably much longer. 
I am, &-c. 

E. A. HOLYOKE. 

Salem, December, 1797. 



F. 

ACETAS PLUMBI IN HEMORRHAGE. 

The following is from a MS. called Hints, Facts, and Obser- 
vations. 

In Menorrhagia, when other medicines, such as Tr. Kino, 
Terra Japonica, Pulvis Styptic. Alum Whey, &c. have failed, I 
have had recourse to the Sacchar. Saturni, with the most benefi- 
cial effects ; and in about 7 or 8 cases, in which I have admin- 
istered it, it has never once failed in checking the complaint. 



68 

The mode of administering it which I have adopted is this : 
R Pulv. Sacch. Saturn : gr. iv. 

Pil. Anodyn, (nost.) gr. v. m. ft. Pil. No. v. 
Cap. aeger, No. 1, 4ta quaq. hora. 

The same medicine, administered in the same dose and after 
the same intervals, we have found to succeed immediately in 
Haematuria, after the unsuccessful trial of the most approved 
remedies : before 4 pills were taken, the Haemorrhage abated, 
and by the time 10 were taken it was entirely suppressed, and 
the patient reinstated. In another instance, 5 of the above pills 
were found to check the disease immediately. 

I was induced to make trial of this remedy by reading in the 
Edinburgh Medical Commentary, vol. xii. p. 190, a letter from 
Dr. Reynolds to Sir George Baker, on the successful use of lead 
in Haemorrhages. 



G. 

BALSAM OF FENNEL. 



Take equal parts of Cream Tartar, (or which will answer as 
well of White Tartar, if it be very good,) and common Nitre, 
let them be reduced in a mortar to a fine powder and thoroughly 
mixed together ; put them into a flat iron vessel and place it in a 
chimney, set it on fire by putting into it a small live coal or a 
red hot iron, when the deflagration is finished and the cake of 
salt is cool enough to handle, take it out and with a knife scrape 
off all the black part, and powder it in a mortar ; it will be found 
reduced in weight one full half. Put the powdered salt into a 
glass vessel capable of containing three times its quantity, add 
pure water to it by an ounce or two at a time, stirring it after 
every addition of water very briskly with an iron or strong 
wooden spatula, and adding gradually about 3 iss or 3 ij of the 
chemical Oil of Fennel to each pound weight of the salt. This 
stirring or violent agitation of the mixture, ought to be frequently 



69 

repeated for a day or two, after a sufficient quantity of water has 
been added, which will be when a quantity nearly equal to the 
salt is added. 

This Balsam, as it is very improperly called, is a very useful 
remedy where an alkaline medicine is wanted, particularly for 
infants, or in those cases in which acidity is predominant in the 
stomach, and is diaphoretic and diaretic. 



H. 

SAL iERATUS. 



The discovery of the mode of preparing this very elegant and 
valuable form of the vegetable alkali, was the result of accident. 
Dr. Holyoke discovered that a quantity of pearlashes which he 
purchased, had an unusual appearance, and did not deliquesce in 
the air. On inquiry, he found the cask containing the article in 
question, had stood in a distil-house, near the cistern, for more 
than a year. The effect was soon traced to the fixed air of the 
cisterns, and thus his mode of preparing the Sal iEratus was 
brought to its present perfection. This account was substan- 
tially inserted in the ii. vol. New York Repository, in 1798. 

To the Massachusetts Medical Society. 

As alkaline medicines are frequently called for, and in many 
cases the exhibition of them in pretty large doses, and those 
often repeated, are judged necessary in some diseases of impor- 
tance, I would beg leave to lay before the Society a few obser- 
vations on the Sal JEratus. 

This salt consists of an alkaline basis, such as Salt of Tartar, 
Pearlashes, or any pure fixed vegetable alkali, fully saturated 
with the acid of fixed air ; an easy and cheap method of pre- 
paring it is this : — Dissolve any quantity of pure fixed vegetable 
alkali, whether mild or caustic, in fair water, in such a propor- 
tion as that the water may be nearly saturated with the salt ; let 
this solution be filtered, and put into a wide mouthed vessel of 



glass or stone ware, let this vessel be covered in such a manner 
as not to exclude the liquor from a pretty free communication 
with the air, and yet so as to secure it from dust or other impu- 
rities ; the vessel thus filled and prepared, should be slung with 
strings of a convenient length, and hung suspended in a distil- 
ler's vat or cistern, over the fermenting liquor, or which may be 
more convenient, in an empty cistern, which has been frequently 
employed to ferment in, and which still contains the fixed air, as 
they all do for a long time after being used, unless purposely 
cleansed. In this situation it should continue for a month or 
more, in which time, if the jar be examined, it will be found to 
contain a considerable quantity of salt, from which the liquor 
must be poured off, and when the salts aie drained, on some 
bibulous paper and dried, they are fit for use. The same liquor 
may be again saturated with new alkali, and the same process 
repeated if thought proper. 

But there is another mode of preparing this salt, which will 
answer as well, perhaps, for any medical purpose, which is not 
attended with so much trouble : take a wooden box made of a 
wide hoop, such as with us is commonly called a sugar box, let 
its side, as high up as its cover will permit, be bored with four or 
five holes of about £ of an inch diameter, and at nearly equal 
distance ; put into this box as much dry alkaline salt as will fill 
it nearly up to the holes bored in its sides ; let this box be cover- 
ed with its lid, and slung by strings, and suspended in a distiller's 
cistern, as in the last case ; and the fixed air which has free ac- 
cess to it by the holes in the side of the box, will in a few weeks 
so impregnate the alkali, as to produce a perfect Sal ^Eratus. 
But in order to accelerate the process, the box should once in a 
week or two be taken out and the salt stirred about with the 
hand or a stick, so as to expose a new surface to the impregnating 
air. I have prepared this salt in both these ways, and think the 
first most perfect, the last much easier and expeditious. 

The salts prepared in the first of these ways, shoot into beauti- 
ful crystals, which seem to be oblique angled parallelopipeds ; 
which detonate in the fire with the crackling noise of sea salt ; 
does not deliquescs or effloresce in the air ; has a mild alkaline 
or subalkaline taste ; is capable of dissolving in water ; (water 



71 

dissolves about one fourth its weight, in a heat of 45° of Faren- 
heit's thermometer ;) and is decompounded by the addition of 
any, even the mildest kind of acid ; indeed without the addition 
of any acid, merely by dissolution in boiling water, for hot water 
has very little affinity with fixed air, although cold water may be 
impregnated with an equal bulk of it. 

When this salt is prepared in the second method, there is no 
appearance of crystals, but is, as far as I can judge, as well 
saturated with the acid of the air as that prepared by the first 
process. Now a salt combined of two such useful principles as 
vegetable alkali and fixed air ; so little disagreeable to the 
palate, and so easily decompounded in the first passage, must, 
I think, be a very useful medicine. As an antacid it perhaps 
exceeds any thing in the Materia Medica. In acidities of the 
stomach, I have often exhibited it with great advantage ; either 
simply dissolved in water, or in infusions of Rhubarb, or of Lign. 
duass. or in mixtures with absorbents and some simple or cor- 
dial waters ; or in powders with Rhubarb or Columbo : and in 
the antiemetic effervescing mixture of Riverius, it by far exceeds 
the common alkali, as being much more palatable, and more 
effectual, as it contains so much more fixed air, (in which the 
virtues of this mixture is supposed principally to reside,) than 
the common alkali. When given with this last intention, I 
dissolve 5ij of the Sal iEratus in vi. spoonfuls of water, one 
spoonful of which is to be poured into as much lemon juice, for 
a dose, which the patient must hold in his hand near his mouth, 
and instantly, even whilst they are mixing, throw it down ; — it is 
never complained of as a disagreeable draught. Perhaps it 
might be better to take down first a spoonful of the acid, and 
then swallow the solution of the salt immediately upon it, as it 
may very easily be done ; but I have never tried it in this way. 

And as fixed air is so powerful an antiseptic, we may, I think, 
very naturally suppose this salt might be advantageously exhibited 
in putrid cases, in the form of the effervescing mixture, as in 
dysenteries, putrid ulcerated throats, &c, and in many cases 
make a most useful addition to the bark. 

But there is another disease, of the first magnitude, in which 
this remedy is highly recommended by the late celebrated 



72 

Cullen, in the 13th chapter of the 2d volume of the last edition 
of his Materia Medica. I mean in calculus of the bladder ; in 
these cases he advises it to be given liberally, and its use con- 
tinued for a long time, which he says relieves the disease more 
certainly and more completely than any other remedy. As I do 
not find this medicine so much known or employed as I think it 
deserves, I have taken the liberty to trouble you with this paper, 
which I hope may conduce to bring it into more general use. 

Note. It should never be exhibited in a vehicle made hot by 
the fire, as the heat almost immediately discharges part of the 
fixed air, and decompounds it. It may not be amiss to mention, 
though it be foreign to the views of this Society, an economical 
use to which this salt may be applied in preference to pearlashes, 
and that is, as a leaven to produce fermentation in dough ; for 
this purpose a small quantity of this salt has a much greater 
effect than the pearlashes. It is frequently useful in the heart- 
burn ; and that sickness, and acidity of stomach, which breed- 
ing women so much complain of. About §ss of it should be 
dissolved in a pint of an infusion of Quassia, and taken in the 
dose of two large spoonfuls, four times a day. 

Beside the diseases mentioned above, to which this medicine 
is applicable, several others will readily suggest themselves to the 
physician, who is acquainted with its usefulness, and seem to 
recommend it to a place in every apothecary's shop. 



I 

ACCOUNT OF THE SMALL POX HOSPITAL, ERECTED AT SALEM, 1773. 

The latter part of the year 1773 was a very sickly season in 
Salem. In the latter part of summer and autumn, cholera, 
dysentery, and fever were very rife. Dr. Holyoke's incessant 
fatigue brought on a fever, which confined him to his house from 
September 16th till October 4th, and left him unable to resume 
his business till the last of October, when the small pox broke 



73 

out, and was of so fatal a nature, that 16 persons died of the 
first 28 who were attacked with it. At a town meeting, Novem- 
ber 1, permission was given to sundry inhabitants who had sub- 
scribed one thousand pounds to defray the expense, to erect a 
hospital for the purpose of innoculation. By the great diligence 
and assiduity of the Committee, the cellar of the principal build- 
ing, 2 stories high, 20 feet wide and 140 feet long, was dug, the 
foundation laid, the frame raised, and partly boarded before dark 
on Saturday, although the work had not been begun nor the ma- 
terials even purchased on the Wednesday before. This Hospi- 
tal was placed in a plat of ground in the south east part of the 
great pasture, containing 12 acres, surrounded by a good stone 
wall, and consisted of two houses, the largest containing 12 
rooms, each 20 feet square, and the smaller, 4 such rooms. So 
vigorously was the measure prosecuted, that although all the ma- 
terials except rocks were carted two and a half miles, the whole 
was completed in 30 working days, commencing on the 3d of 
November ; and on the 9th of December following 132 patients 
were admitted and innoculated. Our late townsman, the vene- 
rable Timothy Pickering, was at that time one of the selectmen 
of the town, and was intrusted with a considerable share in the 
undertaking. It is well known that when he was concerned in 
an enterprize that regarded the welfare and happiness of his fel- 
low citizens, sloth, inactivity, and unnecessary delay never re- 
tarded its completion. The first innoculator in this hospital 
was a Dr. Latham, who innoculated upon the secret plan called, 
from its inventors in England, the Suttonian, and the Salem pa- 
pers of that day are filled with an interesting controversy which 
arose concerning this man and his practice, in which controversy, 
Rev. Dr. Whittaker, Mr. Occum an Indian preacher, Col. Pick- 
ering, and Mr. Dunbar the clergyman of the first church, were 
conspicuous names. 



74 



K. 



LIST OF BIRTHS. 



The following is a list of births, occurring in ten years of his 
practice, from 1790 to 1801, and is a memorandum of some in- 
terest to medical men. 



Years. 

1791 
1792 
1793 
1794 
1795 
1796 
1797 
1798 
1799 
1801 



Isaac Atherton, 

Joseph Orne, " 
David Jewett, 

William Paine, " 

William Clarke, " 

Edward R. Turner " 

William Goodhue, " 
Nath'l W. Appleton, " 

Francis Borland, " 

Edward Barnard, " 

Daniel Kilham, " 

B. Lynde Oliver, " 
Isaac Osgood, 

Nathaniel Parker, " 

Thomas Farley, " 



Boys. 


Oirls. 


35 


49 


53 


34 


52 


38 


45 


51 


59 


48 


47 


53 


54 


43 


53 


47 


48 


54 


46 


35 


494* 


452 


L 




LIST OF 


PUPILS. 


came 


1762, re 



Total. 
84 

87 

90 

96 

107 

100 

97 

100 

102 

81 

946 



1762, remained 3 years. 

1765, " 5 " 

1766, " 3 " 
1768, " 4 " 
1772, staid few months. 
1772, rem. 3 years. 



1772, 
1774, 
1774, 
1774, 

1778, 
1778, 
177- 
1779, 
1782, 



75 



Abiel Pearson, came 

James Griffin, " 

Ekenezer Learned, " 

Nathan Read, " 

*William Harris, " 

J. D. Treadwell, " 

TEdw'd Wigglesworth," 
Nathaniel Lee, " 
Thomas Pickman, 
John Preston, 
James Cook, 
James Jackson, " 
Nath'l Bradstreet, " 
Samuel Gerrish, " 
Matiiew Spalding, " 
Samuel IIemenway, " 
Samuel Trevett, " 
Flagg, 



John B. Brown, 
Edward A. Holyoke, 
Total number, 35 — 13 are now living. 



1782, 
1786, 
1788, 
178-, 
1788, 
1788, 
1790, 
1791, 
1791, 
1791, 
1795, 
1797, 
1798. 
179-. 
1800. 
1801. 
1804, 
1804. 
1808, 
1817, 



rem. 



3 


years. 


2 


u 


3 


ft 


1 


(€ 


1 


<t 


3 


ft 


1 


It 


2 


(f 


3 


(< 


3 


It 


3 


it 


2 


<C 



M. 

LETTER of dr. holyoke. 

The following are extracts from a letter to his wife, dated at a 
period which gives a thrilling interest even to the domestic re- 
cord of the great events, which were taking place. 

Salem, Friday afternoon, June \($th, 1775. 
. . . . As to the Military Operations here I am not in 
the secret, so can give you no news of that sort, though the gen- 
eral Voice is that there will soon be an Engagement, and per- 
haps it may happen before this reaches you. 'Tis said our Peo- 
ple intend to take Possession of Dorchester Hill, to-night, and 



* Afterwards an Episcopal clergyman in New York, 
t Died before he finished his studies. 



76 



whenever they do, it is also said they will be attacked by the 
regulars. I pray God to prevent Bloodshed, but I fear there will 
be a good deal k ..... . 

Sunday, P. M. . . . . I am heartily glad you are not 
here, just at this Time ; you would, I know, be most terribly 
alarmed. We had an appearance yesterday of a most prodigious 
smoke, which I found was exactly in the direction of Charles- 
town, and as we knew our Men were entrenching on Bunker's 
Hill there, we supposed the Town was on Fire, and so in fact it 
proved. For in the evening (that is last evening) we were told 
the Regulars had landed at Charlestown under cover of the 
Smoke from the buildings they had set fire to, and had forced 

the Entrenchments on the Hill 

Among the missing is Dr. Warren, who it is said commanded a 
regiment. Col. Bridge of Billerica, is said to be among the slain, 
and Col. Gardner of Cambridge had one of his thighs shot off. 
The commotion was so considerable, though none of our men 
went to the Battle, (as the Northwest part of the Province and 
not the Seacoast was called out upon the occasion,) that we had 
but one Meeting House open in the morning. And this afternoon, 
while some were at Meeting and others talking over the action of 
yesterday, we were alarmed with an appearance of Smoke at 
Marblehead, which broke up the meetings, and the People with 
their Engines and Buckets went over to extinguish the Fire, and 
I among the rest, though I should have been glad to have been 
excused, on account of the prodigious heat of the weather, but as 
I thought that under Providence I owed the preservation of my 
House to the assistance from Marblehead, when we were in the 
utmost hazard, I could not dispense with going ; but we were 
stopped when about half way there with an Account that the 
Smoke arose from a field of Grass on Fire, and that no building 
was hurt, so I returned home and am now set down to cool my- 
self and give you this account Dr. Warren is since 

known to be killed 

Tuesday Noon, June 20th, 1775. The Destruction of Charles- 
town by Fire, (for it is all burnt down,) has struck our People at 
Salem with such a panic, that those who before thought the 



77 

Town perfectly safe, are now all for removing off; but I cannot 
be apprehensive of any Danger we are peculiarly in. 'Tis cer- 
tain the Aim of the Regulars is to get Cambridge, to defeat our 
Army, and to destroy our Magazines there, — and as Charlestown 
lay in their way, and by setting Fire to it they were able to land 
their Men under cover of the Smoke which blew directly upon 
the Hill, where we were entrenched, they burnt it and succeeded 
by that very stratagem, for our Men did not discover them till 
they were within Gun shot of them 



N. 

RECANTATION OF TORYISM. 

Salem, May 3i)th, 17?.",. 
Whereas we the subscribers, did, some time since, sign an 
address to Gov. Hutchinson, which though prompted to by the 
best intentions, has nevertheless given great offence to our coun- 
try ; We do now declare, that we were so far from designing by 
that action to show our acquiescence in those acts of parliament 
so universally and justly odious to all America, that on the con- 
trary we hoped we might in that way contribute to their repeal, 
though now to our sorrow we find ourselves mistaken. — And we 
now further declare, that we never intended the offence which 
this address has occasioned, and that if we had foreseen such an 
event, we should never have signed it; as it always has been and 
now is our wish to live in harmony with our neighbors, and our 
serious determination to promote to the utmost of our power, the 
liberty, the welfare and happines3 of our country, which is in- 
separably connected with our own. 

Signed by 12 persons. 



O. 

RECOLLECTIONS AND MEMORANDUMS OF PAST EVENTS. 

The first thing that I entirely remember was the funeral of 
Aunt Oulton, which was on July IS, 17 32. 

The first Aurora Borealis I ever saw, the Northern or rather 

K 



78 

Northeastern Sky appeared suffused by a dark blood-red coloured 
vapour, without any variety of different coloured rays. I have 
never since seen the like. This was about the year 1734. 
Northern Lights were then a novelty, and excited great wonder 
and terror among the vulgar. 

In 1737, Square Toed Shoes were going out of fashion ; I 
believe few or none were worn after 1737. Buckles instead of 
Shoe Strings began to be used about the same time, but were not 
universal in the country towns till 1740 or 1742. Very broad 
brim'd Hats were worn as early as I remember. My father had 
a beaver whose Brims were at least 7 inches ; which when he left 
off, I remember I used to wear in the Garden, or in a shower, 
by way of Umbrella. They were all cock'd triangularly. And 
pulling them off by way of salutation was invariably the Fashion 
by all who had any Breeding. 

Boots were never worn except on horseback, or snowy or rainy 
weather. They frequently had large broad Tops that reach'd 
full half way up the Thigh. But Boots did not come into 
general use till the close of the revolutionary war. 

Funerals were extravagantly expensive. Gold Rings to each 
of the Bearers, the Minister, the Physician, &c. were frequently 
given, when the family could but ill afford it. White gloves in 
abundance, burnt wine to the company, &c. &c. This extrava- 
gance occasioned the enacting sumptuary laws, which though 
they check'd did not entirely suppress the complaints till the 
commencement of the revolutionary war. 

In 1740, it was report3d the train band list of the town of 
Marblehead, was equal to that of the town of Salem. The differ- 
ence is now very great. I suppose Salem has at least twice the 
number of Marblehead. 

[1749.]* The Houses (in Salem) were generally very ordi- 
nary. The first handsome house was built by Mr. Jno. Turner, 
then Col. Pick man, then Mr. J. Cabot, &c. 

There was but one ropewalk, and that was on the neck, inside 
the gate. But one tavern of any note, and that was an old 
house at the corner now occupied by Stearns' brick store. The 

* These remarks refer to the period of Dr. Holyoke's residence in Salem, preceding 
the revolution. 



79 

Houses for publick worship were only the old (first) church — the 
eastern parish — the secession from the first church — the Friends' 
meeting house, and the Episcopal church. 

The number of Inhabitants was estimated at between 5 
and 0000. 

The Commerce of this town was chiefly with Spain and Por- 
tugal and the West Indies, especially with St. Eustatia. The 
Cod fishery was carried on with success and advantage. The 
Schooners were employed on the fishing banks in the summer, 
and in the autumn were laden with Fish, Rum, Molasses, and 
the produce of the country, and sent to Virginia and Maryland, 
and there spent the winter retailing their cargoes, and in return 
brought Corn and Wheat and Tobacco. This Virginia voyage 
was seldom very profitable, but as it served to keep the crews 
together, it was continued till more advantageous employment 
offered. 

There were a few Chaises kept by gentlemen for their own 
use, but it was no easy matter to hire one to go a journey. 



POETICAL SCRAPS. 



The following poetical scraps are introduced merely as mat- 
ters of curiosity, and without the most distant idea of claiming 
for Dr. Holyoke the meed of poetical excellence. They serve 
to show what common observation will verify, that most men at 
some period or other of their life seek an utterance for the vivid- 
ness of their thoughts in the flow of measured numbers. The 
first piece is a production of an early period of his life, and oc- 
casioned by the mildness and beauty of the season. The second 
short " fragment" bears the date of 1823, when the author was 
95 years old, and is a playful protest against the innovations of 
modern customs. 

WINTER 1753. 

Hail hoary Time ! whose swift returning course 
Instead of blust'ring, brings us moderate Days ; 
Whose Air resembles more the vernal Breeze 



80 



When from serener skies and purer Air 
The gen'rous Zephyr drives the chilling blast, 
And poisonous Foggs and Vapors all disperse. 
The vital Fluid by our Lungs inhal'd 
Revives the sluggish Blood with active Spring, 
And swifter drives the purple Current round, 
Replete with Life, with vigorous Health endovv'd. 
Hail charming Year ! whose happy Seasons bring 
Hygeia beauteous ! Goddess heav'nly born ! 
The Solace of Mankind ! without which none 
Has ever yet been blest. The proudest King 
Upon his gorgeous Throne, tho' suppliant Crowds 
Wait at his Footstool and his Beck attend, 
Yet if, averse, thou should'st forsake his Court 
And he with Sickness or with Pain distrest, 
Unmindful of the Blessings Heav'n bestows, 
Forgets his Grandeur and his royal Pomp, 
His Crown, his Sceptre gladly would exchange 
For Health or Ease ; And thinks bis meanest slave 
Supremely blest, if on his ruddy cheek 
Happy he views the Salutiferous Blush, 
And easy Smiles pronounce him free from Pain. 
But when Celestial Maid ! thou deign'st to dwell 
As oft thou dost, with Mortals doom'd to Toil 
To Penury and Want, when there thou smil'st, 
They willingly pursue their destin'd Task, 
With cold and hunger combat, still with mirth 
The jocund Year goes round, and Song or Dance 
Forget not, but with Sports and Pastimes crown 
Their Labor, and each vacant hour employ. 

A FRAGMENT. 

and smoak'd segars ! 

Vile substitute for that white, slender tube 
Our fathers erst enjoy'd, in Winter's Eve, 
When the facetious jest, or funny pun, 
Or tales of olden time, or Salem Witch, 
Or quaint conundrum round the genial fire 
The social hour beguil'd. 



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iWir, 



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